Beauty will rise
by WriterKos
Summary: The Earth laughs in flowers, burps in earthquakes and sneezes in tsunamis. A Joy Buchanan story and a tribute to Japan victims of March 11 Earthquake.
1. 灰 Ashes

**_Title: Beauty will rise_**  
**_Author: WriterKos  
Rating: FR15  
Parings: McGee/OFC  
Characters: McGee, OC, the whole Gang from NCIS.  
Genres: Character study, Tragedy, Drama, Disturbing imagery  
Summary:The Earth laughs in flowers, burps in earthquakes and sneezes in tsunamis. A Joy Buchanan story and a tribute to Japan victims of March 11 Earthquake.  
_**

Written for the Japanese, The Fair Fight and The (Un)Natural Disater Challenges from NFA Website

a/n: We were still asleep here in Brazil as the ground shook in the other side of the world and their lives were changed forever. Some were hurt; many died; many more are lost, never to be found again.

We've seen, heard and read throughout the day horrifying reports of what has happened in Japan. The scars cut into that nation's heart are currently bleeding, but I have faith that those will heal. Beauty will rise out of the ashes of their dreams, hopes and lives, and they will once again have the chance of dancing among the ruins, looking to the skies and being thankful of being giving another chance.

This is my tribute to them, a nation so great that I'm sure they will soon rebuild again.

As they've always done, time after time.

**_Chapter 1: 灰 – Ashes_**

_It was the day the world went wrong  
I screamed till my voice was gone  
And watched through the tears as everything  
came crashing down_

_Slowly panic turns to pain  
As we awake to what remains  
and sift through the ashes that are left  
behind_

**_Beauty will rise – Steven Curtis Chapman_**

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that _'The Earth laughs in flowers'. _

As I stand here on the top floor of the Sendai Airport and watch the destruction unfolding before my eyes I can only imagine that the Earth might laugh in flowers, but it burps in earthquakes and sneezes in tsunamis.

Earth is a living and breathing thing; it only gracefully allows us to rule over its surface for the feeble length of time of our very short existence. Nature cannot be controlled or stopped once it unleashes its fury.

You can prepare yourself to the worst case scenario but, unfortunately, not even the worst creation of our imagination could have even come close to the scene that unfolds before our horrified eyes.

We weren't supposed to be here, thousands of miles away from home. Yet duty brought us to Japan, as a Marine who had been recently reassigned from USS George Washington to another Norfolk homeported ship died in an alley in DC with a small paper in his pocket.

In it, just a phone number and a small message written in Japanese.

Our investigation brought me and McGee across the Atlantic to visit NCISRU Yokosuka office before we had to head north to Sendai city where Petty Officer Williams had recently purchased a house, approximately three hours north by train from the main local NCIS office.

But nature was against us. We never made it to our destiny.

The ground beneath us shook with fury and the road stretched out before us became a wet noodle moving under the strength of the fury of the nature.

Once the earth stopped moving, we realized that we had to find higher ground fast.

Time was running out.

The waves were coming.


	2. 殺害  Murder

**_殺害 - Murder_**

The series of events that led us to be across the Pacific started in a normal day in NCIS which Gibbs did his morning routine.

"Grab your gear, dead petty officer!"

We rushed to get our backpacks and in seconds we were filing away into the elevator, the strong scent of coffee coming out of Gibbs extra double espresso permeating the air between us.

The drive was quite short, we were twenty minutes way from the crime scene but what we've found was horrifying.

"Someone really hated him," Tony muttered at he looked for the first time at the mangled body which had been brutally pummeled in an alley in downtown.

"Ziva, witnesses accounts; Tony, bag and tag; Buchanan, McGee, photos."

We silently started working around the crime scene, and while Gibbs kneeled beside the pummeled body I could feel the tickling of a memory just on the edge of my mind.

"You okay?" McGee, bless his heart, always in tune with my distress, noticed that I was frowning at a blood clot on the wall.

"I don't know why, but the way applied by the killer is familiar to me."

"Probably because you've seen people beaten to death before."

"No, that's not it. There's a system to it. I've seen pictures of death like this before. I just don't remember where."

We keep documenting the scene. Ducky and Palmer arrive and start checking the body, and they make a discovery that perks my interest.

"Take look at this, Tony," says Ducky as he gives him something, "This was deeply shoved into his shirt pocket."

"Ah, you're kidding, man. I can't read it," moans DiNozzo, standing up and walking up to Gibbs, who frowns as he is handed the paper.

"Boss, it's in some foreign language. I think it's Chinese."

Gibbs takes it into his gloved hand and squints at the squiggling lines. I immediately look up from the camera I'm using to document the scene and stare interested at the piece of paper currently resting in the Boss' hands.

"Take it to NCIS and ask for someone to have the translation of it done asap."

"No need."

I rush to their side and stretch my hand, asking for it. Tony glances at Gibbs, who after some hesitation deposits the small written paper in my hands. Some seconds later, my memory is jostled into work and the squiggly lines make sense, as well as the deep foreboding I had felt when I first looked at the body.

"Uhm… interesting. It says '_Meet me at SenZushi,_'" I give the paper back to Gibbs and go back to taking pictures.

"You read …"

"It's Japanese, not Chinese. That's not written in _kanji_, but in _katakana_."

"And you know the difference because…" Tony waves the bagged note in the air, expecting an explanation, which at this point I gladly give.

"I've lived in LA for years, Tony, so hitting Chinatown was must. Weekends in San Francisco were my favorite weekend trip so I got interested in their culture and started studying it."

"But you just said that this is Japanese, not Chinese," says Gibbs, his piercing blue eyes fixed on my face.

"Yep, but…. I've learnt both. Considering that several ideograms of Chinese kanji are used in Japanese, I've ended up studying both."

Gibbs keeps staring at me for a long minute, before he grabs the note from Tony's slack hands, surprising him and approaches me.

"So what is this supposed to mean?"

"SenZushi is a chain of restaurants, mostly centered in Tokyo area and surroundings, which are specialized… well… in sushi. They are something like their … Burger King, but much healthier than burgers will ever be. It doesn't indicate which restaurant of their chain the meeting is supposed to happen, but I can for sure say that the person he was going to meet was of the female variety." I say with a small smile on my voice.

Gibbs stares at my face, "How can you say that?"

I lean over Gibbs, and points to the end of the message, "Simply by the end of the message, its signature. Japanese, unlike English, differentiates when the speaker is male or female in their own sentence structure. So, if a male says one thing, they use certain ideograms, while if the speaker is a female, another."

"Who ever wrote this, signed 好きよ which is a mark of female speech."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

I smile, "It means _'I love you._'" I frown as my memory finally brings to my mind what I was looking for, "that actually explains a lot."

Gibbs just glares at me, demanding an explanation, which I gladly give, "Boss, since I've seen this body for the first time my mind was trying to tell me something. I've seen deaths like this before, but never so far out to the East Coast."

"Explain yourself."

"The method applied to killing him, the brutality applied to it, the rage expressed in every punch… that is typical of honor killings of 任侠団体."

Gibbs rolls his eyes, staring to the sky impatient with my roundabout way of explaining things.

"Boss," he looks at me, and he immediately notices my seriousness, "I'm talking of Yakusa honor killings."

"Ah, great. All I've ever wanted to start my day," moans Tony, walking away with the fingerprint kit in his hands.


	3. 語句  Words

**語句 - Words**

Gibbs walks in a hurry to his desk, eager to hear what we have to present him. "What have you got?"

Tony takes the lead, as always, "Petty Officer William Travis, twenty six, has been stationed on the USS George Washington for the last six years until he requested a transfer to DC three months ago. We've been trying a video link with the special agent afloat in it, but due to the different time zones, he's offshore. He's reporting to duty only in our evening which will be their morning, so we will have to wait."

"What about his colleagues?"

"Those on board which we had the opportunity to talk to said that he was a quiet officer, who preferred to do his job and be gone. A loner, only had two or three people who he used to talk to and that's only because they've shared the same interests," says McGee tiredly, after several hours in the MTAC trying a connection on the other side of the world. As there were thirteen timezones of difference, most of the people we wanted to talk were either asleep or off duty.

"Which would be?"

"Board games. According to his XO, they would spend hours playing an assortment of board games whenever they were off duty." I say, studying my notes of what we spoken to the officers on the USS George.

Gibbs frowns, unhappy with our information, "And was there anything illegal in it?"

"No, actually their own captain used to play chess with him. He testified that the boy should have become a pro." I say, lightly hitting my writing pad in my open palm, staring at the picture of the dead officer on the plasma.

"Anything else?"

McGee clicks and the picture of the paper they've found appears on the plasma, "There was a phone number on the back of the message found in Petty Officer Travis' pockets. Abby is already checking it for any residue but she has already told us that it is an old paper."

"How old?"

"He kept it with him for months, according to Abs. The ink on the paper is a few months old."

My info apparently is not enough for Gibbs, who turns to me and stares me down.

"How old?" Gibbs repeats the question, impatient.

"We don't know yet" I say, and Gibbs glares even harder at me, "But we will find out." He turns to look again at the plasma, and I breathe happily again.

"Any idea of whose phone is this?"

"Nope, it's been disconnected for the last seven months, but we know that's a local phone number in…" he clicks another thing and the image from Google Earth zooms in Japan. "Tokyo, where the USS George Washington was homeported and where Petty officer Travis was assigned for the majority of the last six years, until he suddenly requested a transfer to DC three months ago."

"Finances?"

"No big deposits from any suspect sources but he has requested a fairly sizable loan from a DC bank as soon as he arrived back into the States three months ago and he immediately wired the full amount to an account in the Miyagi Province bank," he points to a small dot on the map north of Tokyo.

"How much money are we talking about?"

"A lot," says Ziva, looking at the papers in her hands, "nearly eighty thousand dollars."

"Any idea why?"

"Not yet." Gibbs glares at McGee, who rushes to correct himself, "but we will find out."

"Any family?"

"Father was Admiral, working at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He has already been informed of his son's demise and he's on his way up. Security is bringing him and his wife up as we speak."

"I want to do the interview." He then surprises every one, including me, "Buchanan, with me." He starts marching towards the elevators, where a man in Admiral uniform and a short blond woman are being escorted by security. I glance at McGee who points with his head that I should follow Gibbs.

I rush to my desk, grab a yellow notepad and run down the corridor to follow Gibbs and the parents of our victim to the conference rooms down the hall.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

"What can you tell us about your son?" Gibbs starts, and I sit back to enjoy my favorite past time: people watching.

"He was a good boy. Dedicated. A scholarly child. He was interested in mathematics and chess clubs while growing up and I was quite proud when he decided to join the Navy."

"Did he mention any problems with colleagues, anything that might have caused his request of transfer to DC?"

"No, he just told me that he wanted to be closer to his family."

"Any idea if your son could have come in contact with the underground crime scene in Tokyo?"

"What? That's impossible." Mrs. Travis is outraged, "My Will was a good boy. He has always been the type of child who would bring a wounded bird home and beg me to keep it. He would never involve himself with anything illegal," Mrs. Travis twists a handkerchief nervously in her hand, her big blue eyes red of endless tears for her lost son. Admiral Travis sits straighter on his chair, his eyes burning Gibbs for daring even to suggest the possibility of their son doing something wrong.

"My son is a man of solid morals, who has never done harm to anyone. His career in the Navy has been spotless, he has never received a single reprimand for misconduct," says Admiral Travis in a stern voice, not admitting any bad comment about his son.

"Any enemies?"

"No. He was a loner mostly. He was such a quiet child. Always so focused on his books and board games."

"What kind of board games?" I consider that interesting, and I feel Gibbs' gaze burning me but I simply ignore it. It's a facet of his personality which wasn't written on his service record and it was the second time it was popping out in our investigation.

"He loved them all. Chess. Checkers. Carcassone. Senet."

That catches my attention, and I stare at Mrs. Travis trying to read her.

"He had a very broad interest in games," I comment thinking for a moment.

"Is that relevant how?" Gibbs looks at me impatient to go back to the line of questioning, but my desire to figure out the victmology presses me to investigate this further.

"Boss, most of these games require strategic thinking. Carcassone is old French board game. Senet is an even older board game, ancient actually, of Egyptian origin. Very unheard of."

"My brother is an Egyptologist. He gave the board game to Will when he was seven," says Admiral Travis as explanation.

"Yes, he also was eximious Go player," says , proud of her son's achievements, wiping her red nose with a delicate handkerchief.

"Really? How good was he?" Gibbs glares at me, completely lost in the conversation.

"Is that going to help us find our son's killer?"

"I'm just trying to make mental picture of who was your son while alive, Admiral Travis."

"He was the county champion," says Mrs. Travis, sending a heated glare towards her husband, before leaning towards me and acting like any other mother proud of her offspring, "He even travelled abroad for some competitions while he was in school and that's why he was so happy to be assigned to the USS George Washington in Japan.

I feel Gibbs eyes on me as I'm quite sure that my face is showing my excitement.

"Where did he travel?"

"Korea, China and Japan. He went with a Go group from his school."

I look at Gibbs and we both stand up at the same time.

"Thanks for your cooperation, Admiral."


	4. 旅行  Travel

**_旅行 - Travel_**

I rush to McGee in the bullpen, aware of Gibbs' hurried footsteps following me just a few steps behind.

"What did you find, Buchanan?"

"I don't know yet. Just a theory, Boss."

Once we arrive to our desks, I go immediately to my dear computer musketeer, "McGee, can you pinpoint exactly where that phone in Tokyo was located before being disconnected seven months ago?"

He rolls his eyes and starts searching the records. Gibbs is not so patient with me, so I turn to him excited with what I _might _have discovered.

"Spill it, Buchanan. What's your theory?"

"Boss. Go players are like chess players. For them, the game is almost like a religion. Or an addiction. And they like comparing strategies and having meeting places where they can practice together, where they can be mentored by older players. If Petty Officer Travis was such a dedicated Go player, being in Tokyo would be like being in Disneyland. It's his Holy Grail. He would have gone to one of the several Go clubs in the city and he would have had the opportunity of playing with their top masters there."

"I have it." McGee says, standing up and putting some on the plasma. "The phone was assigned to a penthouse in a high rise in Tokyo here," a small red dot appears on Tokyo map.

"Now, I need you to cross reference the Go clubs of that neighborhood with the SenZushi restaurants addresses we have."

McGee rushes back to his computer, and several yellow dots - representing Go clubs - appear on the screen, followed by several green dots - representing SenZushi restaurants.

I point excited to the plasma, and start speaking very fast before Gibbs starts glaring at me to cut my tech speech, "So, if we can cross reference his Go Playing, with his eating habits and the phone number he gave us as a clue…"

"We might not know who killed him yet but we might have a pretty good idea where he used to go while in Japan," Gibbs completes my sentence, making me very happy that he at least figured out the point I was trying to make.

"Exactly, his fellow colleagues all said that he spent all his off duty hours offshore, and no one had any idea of where he went during the time he was unaccounted for."

"So you are guessing that he would have spent his off hours…"

"In a Go club."

"And she's right." He points to three dots very close to each other, one red, one green and one yellow which were just a few blocks from one another.

"We've might just found which restaurant he visited after going for a game of Go."

"But that's all speculation," adds Ziva, looking at the blinking dots on the map from her desk.

"It's a theory. But a valid one. We can forward the information to the Far East Office in Yokosuka and request them to investigate this angle," I say, trying to pitch my idea with Gibbs, who is thinking hard about what we've found.

"Whatever caused Petty Officer Travis' death has started in Japan. That's where all the clues are," adds Ziva.

"I agree," Gibbs nods, going to his desk and starting to type something on his computer.

"I'm going to request a link to Yokosuka office," I turn around to go to my desk, just to freeze on Gibbs' next words.

"Don't bother, I'll do it. You two have to pack," says Gibbs, staring at his computer screen.

"Why do McGee and Buchanan need to pack?" asks Ziva, squinting at the two agents who are now frozen in front of Gibbs.

"Because they are going to Japan."

"We are?" McGee can barely hide the surprise in his voice. I, in the other hand, just look at Gibbs as he works on his computer as normal.

"Pack whatever you need, you're going to investigate this _in loco_."

"Boss, why are they going? I'm the senior agent here?"

Gibbs glares at DiNozzo, who immediately realizes he has just questioned the man's actions. "Ah… forget…. Ah…

"Have you suddenly learnt Japanese, DiNozzo, and you didn't tell me?"

"Ah… no."

"Then they're going." He turns his attention back to his screen, "Buchanan is fluent in Chinese and Japanese and McGee can work with the local field office to track down where the money Petty Officer Travis had transferred to… ah…"

"Miyagi province …" I add softly.

"That… where the money went… there." He points vaguely to the map of Tokyo in the plasma.

"You two keep looking for crazy Yakuza killers on US soil."

I glance at McGee, who has a small smile in his face, happy with the perspective of being sent into a mission abroad.

"I hope you like sushi."

His answering grin is endearing.


	5. 渋味  Refinement

**_渋味 - Refinement_**

We rush to the townhouse to pack, and we are the last to board the nonstop flight towards Tokyo in Dulles in the beginning of the afternoon. The flight will be long and tiring, so I use my miles - resultant from constant trips to and from Montana - to upgrade me and McGee to business class.

As we take our seat we notice that besides the mixed assortment of businessmen with their overpriced laptops working incessantly during the flight, we also see several families, many different languages floating in the air, everything in the very precise and organized way that is quite characteristic from the oriental culture.

A pretty Japanese stewardess comes to greet us in a very educated English, showing how to use the controls of the very sophisticated screen, where the assortment of programs is staggering for a flight that will last for approximately thirteen hours.

I see McGee fidgeting on the seat, looking around the cabin then at me, showing his eagerness to be going on a trip to Asia.

"Nervous of flying?"

"No, ah..." he fidgets again, then turns excited green eyes to me, making me laugh at his puppy like excitement, "I've just never travelled so far. I mean..." he frowns for a moment, "we've been to Somalia when we went rescue Ziva, but we went on a military plane, in an almost unsanctioned mission. And we were really expecting to come back home in bodybags. But this is..." he looks at the soft lights and the comfortable seats of the business class,"... this is very nice comparing to the old ratty Navy Airplane which shook so much that it rattled my teeth."

"Am I spoiling you, McGee?" I can't help teasing him, as he is usually so focused in his work that it is a nice change to see him excited about something other than computers.

"You've always spoiled me," he says with a smile, his eyes shining with an affection that makes me warm all over.

Our seats are separated by the typical plastic division and several other things, but I put my hand over it all and take his hand, sliding my thumb over his hand in a soft caress. I've always been fascinated by his hands, "I'm glad you're enjoying this."

He smiles like a geek child in an arcade parlor and gets the remote control, going directly to the games section. I lay back and relax, watching him playing and beating repeatedly the highest score, again and again.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The flight took long fourteen hours, but we arrived in Narita Airport in the afternoon of the following day, thanks to the thirteen timezones we had to fly through. The noise and the traffic of early afternoon surprises us, and we look around the terminal trying to find our contact from the Yokosuka office, which Gibbs was in charge of contacting during our flight.

We were standing there for a moment lost among the sea of hurried travellers going to their loved ones or leaving the terminal, when a black man in a sharp black suit approaches us, "Agents Buchanan and McGee?"

We look at him, "Yes."

The black man smiles at us, digging in one of his suit pockets and showing us his NCIS ID. "I'm Special Agent Malcolm Riggins. Welcome to Japan."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

We were able to sleep comfortably during the flight, so Agent Riggins takes us directly to the NCIS office a few kilometers south of Tokyo before taking us to our assigned hotel rooms. He informs us that he had been in contact with headquarters and he had already prepared the preliminary research for us.

"According to the bank records, the money transferred by Officer Travis went to Mr. Ishiro Nihara, a resident of the Sendai city."

"Any link of this Mr. Nihara with any type of criminal activity?"

"None we could track down. According to his records in Japan police, he's just a respectable retired citizen who used to spend long hours as a voluntary Go instructor in Tokyo, before moving back to his native city a couple of months ago."

McGee and I exchanged looks as we received this information. "Let me guess, he was an instructor at one of the Go clubs that we forwarded to you."

"Yes, he has been working there for five years. But we haven't been able to send an agent there to check if they've known our dead petty officer, as we had a rash of targeted poisonings that it's taking all our men efforts."

McGee stretches his hand, asking for the folder "Don't bother, we'll take care of it. Just investigate your case, we'll investigate ours."

"Where exactly is this address?" I ask, and Agent Riggins then start a complicated explanation of how to get to point A to point B through the mazelike metro system, making McGee cringe at the perspective of being squished by hundreds of Japanese going home.

"Can't we get a rental?"

Both me and Agent Riggins look at him as if he had suggested that we cross the Pacific back to America... swimming.

"We're in Tokyo, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Do you really want to face the rush traffic to go across the city?"

He freezes and looks at us, thinking about what we've just told him. "That bad?"

Riggins just walks away chuckling, while I nod to him. "Yeah. That bad."


	6. 碁 – Go

碁 – Go

While Gibbs, Ziva and Tony slept back home, we braved the crowded rail system to leave Yokosuka and after a long tortuous train ride, we arrived at Kannai station. Once there, we simply gave in and hired a taxi to take us to our destination, as we were likely to get lost in the sinuous streets of that area.

We finally arrive to a small tea house, with several ideograms which I recognized from the papers Riggins had given us a couple of hours before.

"It doesn't look like a place where Yakusa meetings take place."

"You never know," I open the delicate sliding door and we find a corridor leading into the house, with delicate paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. We follow down the corridor until we find ourselves in an ample internal garden, with a beautiful fountain in Feng Shu position surrounded by flowers.

Our arrival is finally noticed by a woman, a middle aged Japanese lady in comfortable clothing who approaches us and starts talking in Japanese, excited at our visit.

I speak with her for a moment, asking for the Go club. She smiles, leans forward in salutation, before waving her hand in the air in the international gesture of "please follow me."

The woman, who has introduced herself as Mrs. Itomi, guides us through another corridor until we arrive in an ample room, where several traditional boards named _gobans _碁盤 are strategically placed in the room, each with two players deeply absorbed in their game.

"Wow", McGee looks around, "it's like walking into a videogame arcade of the last century," one teenager walks by us, salutes another before going to an empty table, silently opening their wood carved bowls named _goke _碁笥 and starting their games with the stones, named _goishi _碁石.

"Yeah," I say, looking at a very old man who is now walking into our direction, after talking to Itomi, "the only difference is that the game played here has been around for more than thousand years."

I feel his glance towards me, making me a little proud of reciting random information he has no idea I have hidden in my brain.

"How do you know that?"

"Reid liked playing it when we weren't on a case." I say, and I immediately notice a certain tension in McGee's shoulders when I mention my old colleague and lover from BAU.

The old man reaches us and leans forward, in the traditional salute, and says a greeting in Japanese before switching into English, "Welcome travellers away from home. Are you here to join us in the amateur competition? There is still availability."

"Actually, we're here for information." We both show our badges, but the old Japanese frowns at it, and we realize that he has no obligation to know about us. I then simply take a picture of Mr. Ishiro Nihara provided by Agent Riggins, "We're actually looking for information on this man."

"Uhmm..." he looks at the picture then glances at us briefly, before pushing his glasses over the bridge of his nose.

"What do you want with Mr. Nihara?"

"As we said, just information. Is there anywhere we can talk?" McGee asks, noticing the angry looks we're receiving for breaking the silence in the room.

"Please follow me, we will have tea."


	7. 茶道 – Sado – Way of tea

_**茶道 – Sado – Way of tea**_

Mr. Tatsuya Suzuki, the current voluntary Go instructor on the club, leads us to a small room apart from the tournament, which I immediately identify as a ceremonial tea room. Mr. Suzuki points to a door, which we must enter, then he walks down the corridor so he may enter through the other door of the room.

"Where is he going?"

"He's going to get ready for tea."

"Is that really necessary?"

"Yep, take off your shoes."

"Why?" McGee is cute when he is pouting, but now it's not the time for it.

"Because it's impolite to dirty the tatamis with our dirty shoes, and it is also a sign of respect. We are being given a great honor, we should enjoy it at its fullest extent."

We enter silently the square room through the _Nijiri-guchi_, bowing slightly at the threshold to enter - in a symbolic gesture of humility. I silently point to McGee one of the tatamis of the floor, the Kinin-Datami, which is always chosen for the main guest, right beside the small alcove named _Tokonoma _床の間 where the only piece of decoration hangs, a small scroll painting in beautiful elegant lines, the _Kakejiku _掛軸.

I sit on the traditional way kneeling on the floor and resting my buttocks on my heels, and sign to McGee to do the same, but with his back to the Kakejiku, in order to indicate that he is the honor guest to our host, Mr. Suzuki, according to the traditional ritual of tea. He cringes as he folds his long legs in the uncomfortable position, and fidgets until he finally thinks he is able to withstand more than three minutes sitting on his folded legs.

Mr. Suzuki enters, shoeless and in traditional clothing, followed by Mrs. Itomi who introduced us to him; Mr. Suzuki sits on the traditional way on the _Kayoi Datami _while Itomi acts as tea master and goes to the _Temaé Datami_ and starts the delicate process of preparing the tea.

Mr. Suzuki sits there without moving a muscle; I breathe deeply to endure the silence while the woman prepares the tea, I sense McGee starting to fidget impatiently on my side. I immediately glare at him who is starting to speak, but he somehow senses my glare at him and turns his head to look at me.

I glare at him and try to silently communicate that he has to stay silent. I see right away when the message is received, as he immediately blushes and glances apologetic at Mr. Suzuki, trying to accommodate his long legs under him in the uncomfortable position we're in.

When I look again at Mr. Suzuki, I notice that he hasn't moved a muscle; there's no expression on his face, but I really can't shake the feeling that he is laughing at us.

I really hate when people have better poker faces than mine.

The woman silently stirs the tea in graceful movements which are very similar to poetry, and it is ready we're given the _chawan _with the hot tea in it. I glance at McGee and show him the proper way of holding the bowl with tea, receiving it with the right hand while the left palm is under it.

Then I rotate the _chawan _clockwise three times and wait until McGee does the same thing. Once he is done, I smile and start sipping the fragrant green tea, closing my eyes to the stringent bittersweet taste of _Sencha_. I'm temporarily transported to eventual tea nights out with Special Agent Dimitri Korcevic after a hard case, when I dragged my old supervisor to a relaxing evening away from the gore and death we had to face daily and sought catharsis of our lives observing the simply and elegant movements of the tea master who lived just a couple of miles out of Los Angeles.

I feel the prickling of tears as I'm again reminded of the life I've put behind me, but I sigh deeply to calm myself. I finish my tea, wiping the part of the _chawan _touched my lips with my right hand, before I rotate the _chawan _counterclockwise and return it to our host, bowing lightly as a gesture of thanks for being offered such great honor.

The tea master bows towards me, and after she puts away my _chawan _she waits to McGee to follow the same little ritual and give his to her as well. Itomi then bows twice, and walks silently out of the tea room, leaving Mr. Suzuki and us submersed in silence.

I feel McGee's eyes on me, but I don't fall into the temptation of looking at him, staring into Mr. Suzuki's face which, I have to admit, is truly inscrutable.

Finally he moves, folding his hands placidly over his legs, "I see you are aware of our customs and rituals."

"I've attended tea ceremonies before."

Mr. Suzuki nods, taking in the information I've just gave him, "Why do you seek Mr. Nihara?"

"We're investigators from the Navy in America. A Naval officer was brutally killed and our investigation has leaded us to Mr. Nihara."

Mr. Suzuki nods slowly, "If you are here, it means that William Travis is dead."

McGee and I look at each other, surprised that Mr. Suzuki could guess who our dead petty officer was.

"Have you met Petty Officer Travis? We've never told you whose death we're investigating."" McGee says, sitting sideways so his butt is finally on the tatami, not over his heels. I smile as I see how he sighs relieved of getting the pressure off of his feet.

"Yes, I've met Petty Officer Travis. I and Mr. Nihara trained him in Go. Great promise. But he was blindsided by his heart."

"I don't understand. What has happened?"

Mr. Suzuki nods slowly, looking away from us towards the beautiful garden outside, muttering in a soft voice 眼に嬉し恋君の扇真白なる 蕪村_"me ni ureshi koigimi no ôgi masshiro naru"_

"What's that supposed to mean?" McGee is as confused as me.

"It's a poem. It means _'how beautiful is, using the white fan, the one I love._'" I say, translating the small _haikai_.

Mr. Suzuki looks at us again, "It wasn't a storm, but a small drizzle that destroyed the walls around the heart of the man. It all started with a game of go..."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Three hours later, the night was already firmly set over Tokyo when we leave the Go club and say our goodbyes to Mr. Suzuki.

We breathe deeply the chilly night air, as the wind starts blowing over us indicating the incoming snow.

"What time is it in DC right now?" McGee asks, as we slowly walk down the road towards the avenue, where we can take a taxi towards Yokosuka, then finally our hotel.

"Seven am. Gibbs probably is already in the office."

"We have to talk to Gibbs."

I sigh loudly, wondering how complicated things have become just in the last hour.

"Yeah, we have to talk to Gibbs."


	8. 入れ墨  Tattoo

a/n: Okay, my beta gently remind me that some people might be offended by the topics addressed here. As I've explained in the first chapter, this is story was conceived as a tribute to the amazing ability of the Japanese people to always rise again, regardless of how many times nature or circumstances are thrown on their way. I mean absolutely no disrespect towards them in this very difficult time they are going through.

Brazil has the biggest Japanese colony outside Japan, most of my best friends are avid Go players, once a month my friends go for Japanese sushi bar and eat as much as we can.

I mean absolutely no disrespect towards them, as I'm sure that they will rise again. The disaster, pain and fear described are real, inspired on shocking and powerful images from TV. All the rest, from the Yakusa structure to what happened when they were marooned, was all my imagination.

* * *

**入れ墨 - Tattoo**

_**Meanwhile, in DC...**_

"According to Immigration and Interpol, two known Yakusa members arrived in DC on the direct flight from Tokyo four days ago," says Ziva, after putting the phone on its cradle after talking with her contacts. McGee and Buchanan are already somewhere over continental United States flying, and the agents were still hard at work.

"Where are they now?"

Ziva cringes, in preparation to Gibbs' certain explosion, "The Interpol agents who were tailing them lost them two days ago."

"Right on time to kill our petty officer."

"But we have no way of connecting yet their arrival to Travis' murder."

"Not yet," Tony says, approaching Gibbs with some printouts, "according to Interpol, they were last seen visiting some bars downtown, which are well known for gang activity. Not the place where you would like to visit when in our beautiful DC, so many nicer neighborhoods to go," Gibbs lifts his eyes from the printouts to glare at Tony, who gulps, "anyway, I have some addresses we could..."

"Go. Take Ziva with you."

Tony and Ziva rush to their desks, get their backpacks and glance at Gibbs, who also gets his gun from his drawer and gets ready to leave.

"Where are you going Boss?"

"I'm going to see a man about getting a tattoo." With those words, he leaves smirking at the surprised and shocked expressions on both Tony's and Ziva's faces.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs is sitting at the park bench watching a woman playing with her poodle in the grass while he sips his coffee. She would throw the stick and the dog would run like a little lunatic after the twig, barking excitedly at everyone and everything, before coming back with the slobbered stick to his owner. She would then repeat the ritual, and there goes the dog again.

Gibbs sips again his coffee, not surprised to hear Fornell's voice behind him, "Is that a new pastime of yours? Stalking women with their dogs in the park?"

"It could be. Does it bother you, Fornell? Are you going to arrest me?"

Gibbs looks at Fornell who sits beside him, his eyes immediately going to Fornell's hands where a thick folder is.

"Do I need to?"

"Nahhh" He points with his chin towards Fornell's hands, "Is that all?"

"All I could get in such short notice. Gang related crimes are usually scrutinized by very few eyes, especially when they have international connections."

Fornell gives him the folder, and Gibbs starts looking through the papers and pictures, his eyes stopping here and there on the detailed pictures of tattoos which were part of the Yakusa culture.

"What can you tell me about honor killings?"

"They're bad. They're nasty. And usually they go after everyone connected to the person who has given them problems or who has blemished the honor of the group."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone."

Gibbs nods, thinking about the dire need of putting Admiral Travis and his wife immediately under protection.

"Why do they happen? What's the difference between the normal murder to the honor motivated ones?"

"Yakusa killings are brutal, either way. But the honor motivated ones are... personal."

Gibbs frowns at Fornell, then turns his head to look at the woman again, who now is sitting on the grass as her dog barks excitedly at her, trying to grab the small red ball she is teasing him with.

"How personal?"

"Imagine something like... Godfather."

Gibbs glares at Fornell, "Are you spending your free time with DiNozzo?"

"God, no." Fornell shakes his head, not even considering the possibility, "usually someone is submitted to honor killings if he has aggrieved someone in the family, or if he has made a personal offense to a higher up in the organization. It has to be personal, and the killer chosen to perform it is usually the one who feels the most offended."

"So, all I have to do is to arrest this bastard and ask why he pummeled my petty officer to death?"

"Basically, that's it. But I highly doubt he will say anything. Honor killings are about revenge, to restore honor to one who feels insulted. Now that he has killed, he feels... justified. You won't find any remorse on him."

"Thanks for these," Gibbs stands up, putting his coffee on the seat, "You might have it if you'd like."

"No, I don't want to die with your germs."

Gibbs salutes him, starting to walk away, just to stop when Fornell calls him, "Gibbs," he turns around to the FBI agent, "be careful. They don't like people poking around their business ... they are like a nest of angry wasps. If you get too close, they might sting you. Watch your back."

"I'll remember that."


	9. 兵士  Soldier

**兵士 - Soldier**

Ziva and Tony enter the dark smoky bar, looking around and finding a bar with several pool and cards tables. Several bottles were lined in front of a mirror strategically placed behind the shelves on the walls, giving an illusion of depth, while lime green and blue lights gave an eery light to the bottles, coming from strategically placed spotlights on the shelves.

"Cozy," says Tony, smiling brightly at a scantly clad waitress who walks towards him giving a sultry look.

"Keep your eyes on the men, not the women, Tony."

"Ah, come on, this is the fifth bar we've visited. And I'm just," he smiles at another waitress who walks in front of him towards the counter, leaning over the counter and showing toned legs ending in a very tight green shorts. "Just admiring remarkable sights," Tony says grinning, just to receive a jab on his ribs from Ziva.

"Behave," she hisses as the waitress leaves and they approach the bartender, a white man with an hair cut imitating David Beckam's spiky stile, with lots of gel. The biggest difference was that each spike was a different color, giving a strange rainbow effect to his hair. His piercings on his eyebrows, lips and nose added the bizarre image, being just topped up by the bright yellow contact lenses he used on his eyes, which were now filled with mistrust staring at the two NCIS agents.

"What can I offer you?" He takes two glass shots from under the counter and puts then on the polished top.

"We just need information." Both Ziva and Tony show him their badges.

"I don't know anything." The bartender immediately goes on defensive, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"We haven't asked anything yet."

The bartender shrugs, "It doesn't matter. You cops are all the same. Think that we know everything just because we're here but we don't. So why don't you leave now?"

"Hey, calm down. What got you so spooked?"

The young man shrugs, his posture still defensive, "A pal of mine died after talking to some cops. Just some questions, they've said. Yah, I know. And then you're life ends in an alley. So you'd better go."

"We just want to know if you've seen these men," says Ziva, showing him the pictures of the two Yakusa members.

The bartender initially refuses to look at the picture, but Ziva insists, sliding the picture on the counter towards him. The bartender shiftily looks at Ziva and at Tony, before looking at the picture with more attention. He immediately tenses and both Ziva and Tony notice the glance he throws to one of the pool tables being at the darkest part of the bar, where two men were playing and smoking.

"Thanks," Ziva says, before putting the picture on her pocket.

Several biker looking patrons were playing on their tables, and they glance unimpressed at Ziva as she walks between the pool tables towards the last one, followed by a nervous Tony.

"Ah, Ziverrr, don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Like what, Tony?"

"Ah," he looks at some very tall muscular black men who stop their pool game and stare at them, their muscles almost seeming to be ready to rip the cloth of their t-shirts. "like getting us killed. Maybe we should call for backup."

"But until they arrive they would be gone, Tony. Not acceptable," she says, as she stops a few feet away from the two Japanese playing pool.

"Mr. Kyioshi Tezeri?" She asks out loud, while one of the men leans over the pool table and hits the white ball. His game was perfect, as the colored balls were one by one falling in the holes, until none was on the green table.

"Who wants to know?" He asks in a soft voice, as he straightens his back and watches his game slowly unravel. He was using social trousers with an impeccable cut, together with a branded polo shirt which screamed money, lots of money. His hair cut seemed to be an imitation of the haircut of the main character of DragonballZ, with several gel hardened spikes coming out of his head.

"We're Special Agent Ziva David and Anthony DiNozzo, from NCIS," says Tony, looking nervously at the other man, a huge Japanese who kind of reminded Tony of sumo wrestlers.

"Why do you look for Tezeri?"

"We just need him to answer some questions," once the Japanese turns around, both Ziva and Tony notice his fists were wrapped in gauze.

"I hope you are enjoying our hospitality, Mr. Tezeri. We would hate to see you hurt," says Tony, his hand itching to draw his weapon.

"Ah," Kyioshi Tezeri, right hand man from one of the most powerful families in Yakusa, smiles at the agent, noticing how both tensed at the coldness of his smile, "but these wounds do not hurt, as they were merely result of an small accident."

"An accident?" says Ziva, squinting at him, quite aware that the other players in the other tables were all watching the exchange. The low murmur of voices faded away, until only the silence reigned in the bar. "Like when you accidentally pummeled to death an American Petty Officer?"

Tezeri doesn't move a muscle, but both Tony and Ziva felt the temperature going below Artic as he looked at them.

"Ah, but that... that wasn't an accident." His movement was minimal, but Ziva was ready for the attack when it came from behind her, as she struck the huge biker with a Krav Manga move, throwing him over her shoulder as if he weren't twice her weight.

Tony also started fighting against a man who tried to get him in a choke hold, so the fight became a real bar brawl in few seconds.

Punches and kicks were exchanged, the waitresses ran away screaming, and after Ziva got rid of another monkey like wrestler she jumped over the green table, drawing her weapon and shooting once, the bullet hissing above Tezeri's head and effectively drawing everyone's attention.

"Move and I will not hesitate to put a bullet through your head," she hissed, her hair falling out of her usually tight coiffure. The two men freeze.

"You missed it."

"No I didn't. Check your hair."

Tezeri runs one of his hands through his hair, and there's a huge chunk of it missing where one of his gel hardened horns used to be.

Tony also draws his weapon and points to the people around them in a semi circle, "That's right. Listen to the lady. We just want him. We don't want anything with you guys. And I really wouldn't piss her off, as she is really dangerous when she is pissed off."

The two foreigners frown at her as she slowly climbs down of the pool table, walking towards their direction, her guns pointed to them. Tony follows her and both agents cuff the Japanese men, under the careful watch of the other bar patrons.

"You are committing a mistake."

"No, you have committed a mistake when you killed Petty Officer Travis," says Ziva as she tightens the cuffs on his wrists, smiling when he grimaces due to his wounded fists.

"I'll be out before the ink dries on your papers."

"We'll see."

The two NCIS agents escort the two Japanese out, always under the glare of the other bar patrons.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Tony and Ziva stared at the Japanese man sitting placidly in interrogation three.

"He's too calm."

"Boss will break him, don't worry," says Tony, before he blinks and fidgets a little. "Okay, he's too calm. What did the other say?"

"Nothing, he only smiles and stares at us. I do not think he even speaks or understands English," mutters Ziva, aggravated with their suspects.

At that moment, the door to interrogation opens and Gibbs enters, one folder in his hands as he approaches the Yakusa soldier, who looks impassively at the American investigator.

Gibbs sits in front of him, his blue eyes studying Mr. Tezeri for a long time. What he sees is not a surprise: the man has soldier eyes, strong lean muscles carefully hidden by his impeccable gray shirt.

"Why did you kill my petty officer, Mr. Tezeri?"

"I have nothing to say to you."

"How did you hurt your hands?"

Tezeri settles back on the chair, smiling lightly at his wounded knuckles.

"I'm a professional wrestler. Sometimes things get... rough."

"What are you doing in America?"

"I had a professional fight to attend. Very closed circles. They will not appreciate when they find out that you've had me arrested."

"Did things... get rough... with Petty Officer Travis?" Gibbs puts several pictures of the dead petty officer, one beside the other, on the table, so Tezeri can look at them.

"I have never met this man."

"What is your connection to him?"

Tezeri just smiles.

"Why did you kill him?"

"I'm telling you. I have never met this man."

Gibbs squints at the Japanese for a whole minute, whose stone mask face shows no emotion at looking at the pictures, before sliding his hand over the pictures, getting all of them together and putting them back in his folder.

"I'll find out. And when I find out, you will rot in my American jail."

"I don't think so. You have only forty eight hours to hold me without proof. After that, I'm free. And you won't find any connection between me and him."

"That's up to me."


	10. 王女 Princess

**王女****- Princess**

_Two households,..._  
_ ..both alike in dignity,..._  
_ ..in fair Verona, where we lay our scene,..._  
_ ..from ancient grudge break to new mutiny,..._  
_ ..where civil blood makes civil hands unclean._  
_ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,..._  
_ ..a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life._

They kept both Japanese citizens on hold, at least until Abby and Ducky were able to process Tezeri's bruised knuckles and compare them with Petty Officer Travis's wounds. Tezeri, indeed, had been in a wrestling match as several minutes of footage provided by a very eager lawyer proved their alibi. But they requested the video as evidence to be double checked by Abby as well.

A couple of hours after Gibbs arrived at the office the following morning, one of the techs informed him that an incoming call in MTAC waited for him. Tony and Ziva immediately perked up at that, silently begging him with bright eyes and fidgeting, eager to see their fellow teammates

Once inside Gibbs gestured to the techs to connect the incoming call and after a moment of drizzle image the three of them are gifted the image of McGee sitting in track pants and a old MIT gray t-shirt on the edge of a bed with several fluffy pillows embroidered with beautiful lotus flowers carefully organized behind him.

His head was leaning to the side as he stared fascinated at something out of the sight. His arm was high in the air with a remote control in his hand, eyes fixed at whatever is playing on the TV set.

"MCGEE," Gibbs' shout immediately made the younger agent drop the remote from his hand and he rushed to catch it before it broke on the floor.

"Ah, Boss, I was... just … you know," McGee stammered, his eyes huge, green pools staring in shock at the laptop camera.

"No, I don't. What are you doing?"

McGee blushed brightly, looking guiltily down to the left, "Ah... just watching television. There's some interesting channels here that I..." He tried to turn it off but apparently it didn't work as they could see the flicker of the lights changing on McGee's face. They also noticed how McGee's horrified gaze widens at the new images, "Ah, there's a button somewhere..."

"McGee!" Gibbs is starting to lose his patience. At least, the little he still has.

"Yes, ah... just a minute as... I ..."

At that moment Joy entered through a sliding door beside the bed, moving silently into the room. She froze when her gaze stopped onto whatever is on the television before glaring at McGee who looked guiltily at her, blushing brightly.

"I have no idea how... ah... I was trying to turn it off. I swear. I..."

Joy glared at him then walked towards him in hard steps with her hand out silently asking for the remote. He sighed, giving it to her and she successfully turned the TV off.

She threw the remote on the bed and asked angrily, with her arms crossed over her chest, "Since when do you watch porn?"

"Hey, whoa, what's that?" Tony immediately butted in and Joy finally saw the active connection to NCIS.

"I wasn't..." McGee stuttered, apologetically. Tony laughed at his discomfort, Gibbs simply glared, and Ziva snickered at the two agents in the video. "I was looking for ZNN and that …" he pointed to the TV "that thing came on... and that's in Japanese. It was awful."

Joy looked disbelievingly at him for a second or two before turning to the laptop, "You're still sleeping on the sofa tonight." She muttered to McGee before looking towards the camera, "Hi Boss, we have very important information to relay to you."

"Are you serious?" McGee said incredulously while Tony could barely hide his glee which instantly plastered itself to his face.

"McGee is sleeping in the dog house tonight. Awf...Grrrrl..." Tony's teasing was stopped by precise head slaps, both by Ziva and Gibbs.

"Ouch," Gibbs glared at Tony and he became quiet. "Shutting up now." Tony muttered, and all agents turned to the screen where they could see the agents in Japan.

"What have you found out there?" Gibbs was eager to start, not willing to stop with silly pleasantries.

McGee threw a hurt look to Joy who ignored him as she sat beside him before looking at the camera again, "A lot. Apparently, Petty Officer William Travis was really an amazing Go player."

McGee nodded, "He was training with the best masters of the Tokyo for an international championship held annually in the city of Nagoya."

"Was he killed for that?" Ziva looked at the papers in her hand before glancing at Buchanan and McGee.

Buchanan shook her head, "Nope. No reason to murder in his game playing but we actually believe it's something completely different, Boss."

"Money? drugs?" Ziva guessed only to see both agents in Tokyo shaking their heads.

"Weapons? Espionage?" Tony tried just to see Buchanan smiling softly at him.

"Love," Joy said surprising all three agents in DC.

McGee continued the explanation, "It's a classic tale of star-crossed lovers, Boss."

"What do you mean?" Confused, Gibbs stared at his agents.

Joy folded her legs under herself getting comfortable on the bed, "While playing Go against one of the top five Masters in Tokyo, Petty Officer Travis was invited to a private game in a very high class Penthouse. There he met a young woman who also was a great player in Go, and his teacher suggested that he try his hand playing against her."

"But in the end he didn't play _against _her; he played _with _her." Tony said, already imagining the complicated imbroglio they were digging up. Joy nodded at Tony's interpretation of facts while Gibbs was still trying to see the connections.

"Who was she?" Gibbs asked.

"A **王女**, it translates as Princess. She was the youngest sister of the right hand of one of the most notorious crime families in Yakusa. The relationship started slowly as they met only for the games with direct supervision. Their common teacher, Mr. Nihara, was watching them all the time. Nothing happened for approximately a year."

"How can you be so sure nothing happened for a year?" Tony asked incredulously. Both Ziva and Gibbs looked at him like he was an idiot."What? It's a valid question. A lot can happen in a year."

Joy agreed with the Senior Agent, "Tony is right. But you have to consider that they had their own chaperone in the room the whole time. According to Mr. Suzuki, one of the masters who we've met today and who has been present in several of their games, they never even exchanged words during the time they were playing."

"How is that even possible?" Ziva shook her head surprised at that info.

"It's the game, Boss." says McGee. "It's the very nature of the game to be totally focused on the strategy you are developing so the world around you fades, and you don't even talk to your opponent. I guess it's even more mind consuming than chess. Walking into that game parlor today was similar to walking into a cemetery with crouching statues hunching over low wooden tables, completely silent."

"What changed?" Gibbs asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"He got tired of having his ass kicked by a woman," McGee said. "After being beaten in the game over and over, thanks to her superior strategic thinking, he went after her and asked her to teach him. She agreed and that's the turning point where competition becomes attraction."

"According to Mr. Suzuki, they were able to hide their relationship from everyone for approximately eight months, but after that time the situation changed," Joy said sadly, thinking about how things for their star-crossed lovers would soon turn from bad to worse.

"How?" Gibbs asked.

"She got pregnant," McGee said. "That's when both panicked. They ran to one of their masters, and hatched a complicated escape plan. Mr. Nihara would disappear with her, keeping her safe until Travis came back to pick her up and take her to America."

"That's very... romantic," Tony said, rolling on the balls of his feet. "Where's the tragedy?"

"He didn't come back," Joy started rubbing her hands tiredly over her eyes, exhaustion after the long trip finally settling in. "He legally married her with the help of Mr. Nihara."

"We were able to track down the filed papers at the prefecture," said McGee, nodding slowly.

"The money he sent from America for Mr. Nihara, the Go master who helped him, was used as down payment on a house in the Miyagi province, and that's where the trail goes cold. Mr. Nihara abandoned Tokyo to go back to Sendai, but Miss Tezeri had been missing for months before Nihara left the city." Joy said falling back on the pillows on the bed, blinking tiredly.

"Her disappearance matches the time the phone line was disconnected at the Penthouse in Tokyo," McGee also blinked tiredly, eager to finish their report.

"Which was where Tezeri lived before disappearing," Joy completed, already closing her eyes to sleep. After a full morning at work back in DC, plus the fourteen hour flight and still more six hours working following leads, she was ready to drop.

"We arrested two Yakusa soldiers last night. One of them is named Tezeri, Kiyoshi Tezeri."

Buchanan glanced at McGee who nodded at the info Gibbs just gave them, "Keiko was his baby sister."

"Was Travis killed for getting her pregnant, for disappearing with her, or for abandoning her?" Gibbs asked seeing his agents shaking their heads slowly.

"Any of those are bad in the eyes of the family. You see… a princess is not to be touched. She was kept under lock and key since her birth. According to Mr. Suzuki, the only place she could be herself without someone looking over her shoulder was when she went to the Go club. There she meets a shy, gentle foreign man who shares the same interests. Mixing with a foreigner is a grievous crime. Getting married and pregnant by a foreigner, who is also an American Naval officer, that was even worse," said McGee as he rubbed his hands together before scratching his open palm.

"Why didn't he come get her?" Tony still couldn't understand what really happened to the two lovers.

"That's something that didn't add up, Boss. So we did some digging and..." McGee's face became serious, "We've found something. He actually tried, several times. We've gone with a fine tooth comb in the reports related to Officer Travis, and what we've found is nothing but … disturbing."

Gibbs stared at his agents who seem sad about the news they were about to break to him.

"We've found several requests for long term leave accumulated on his superior officer's inbox," Joy said, silently burning with anger at the situation. "Each explaining in detail that he had 'personal issues` that needed to be solved urgently, and that time was of the essence."

"What did his superior officer do?" Gibbs didn't like what his agents were implying.

McGee shook his head, shrugging, "Denied them all. Every single one of them."

Gibbs growled at that info, "Why?"

"Just a personal grudge, Boss," McGee said looking at some papers in his hand, "Apparently _Admiral_ Travis had some differences of opinion with said officer a couple of years ago. So the officer decided to retaliate in the weakest link of the chain, the Admiral's son, which he actually could belittle and control as he was directly below his line of command."

"Name?" Gibbs snarled, ready to go hunting that creep.

"Lieutenant Commander Jerry McGrudy," McGee said the name of Travis's immediate superior officer, and Gibbs pointed to the door; both Tony and Ziva rushed to bring him in, leaving Gibbs alone with his agents.

"Good job digging this out."

"Thanks Boss," McGee said smiling proudly at Gibbs.

"What's next?"

McGee and Joy looked at each other and after a moment Joy said, "We're taking the bullet train to Sendai tomorrow morning; we're going to try to find Mr. Nihara. Maybe he will be willing to talk to us."

"You do that; we'll dig deeper on the info you've found so far," He paused looking at the two agents for a moment, "another thing, take care out there. Don't try to be heroes if any Yakusa come after you."

"Okay, Boss," said Joy, sitting up again on the edge of the bed.

"And good night sleeping on the sofa, Tim," Gibbs said with a small smirk reminding Buchanan of McGee's last sin. She looked outraged at McGee, squinting as she remembered why she was mad at him in the first place, and that was the last image Gibbs had of his agents before the connection is cut.

If Gibbs had know the disaster the following afternoon would bring to his agents and that carefree image could possibly be the last time he would see his agents alive, he would have stayed connected talking to them longer.


	11. 新幹線  Shinkansen  Bullet train

A/N: Soundtrack to this chapter is **_Traditional Japanese Flute in the Omiya Park, Saitama, Japan _**, easily found in youtube.

* * *

**新幹線 - Shinkansen - Bullet train**

It was the sound of music and a child's laugh that woke me up the following morning. Soft voices carried through the walls of the military base house which Agent Riggins kindly assigned to us. We could have been allocated to an impersonal hotel but the house had just been vacated and it was more practical to have us beside his house instead of going all the way downtown.

I rolled onto my back and saw the empty impression from McGee's body on the mattress and pillows and when I touched it I noticed that the bed sheets are cool. I sighed and sat up on the bed, closing my eyes to the sweet sound of a flute being played somewhere outside my window. The notes mixed with the singing of the ducks, crows and tiny buzzers in the background. I put the warm duvet aside and left the bed, looking for my robe to put over my Star Wars t-shirt with a big Yoda picture on it and knickers.

I approached the window still tying the belt of my rope and moved the delicate silk curtains aside. The scene playing beyond the window brought a bittersweet smile to my face. I saw McGee calmly teaching baseball to one of the kids living on Yokosuka base.

The boy couldn't be more than seven; his grin was gigantic as McGee ruffled his hair before teaching him how to properly hold the bat before walking a few feet away so he could pitch the ball to the boy.

The boy's mother, a young Japanese lady, sat on the backsteps to her own house right across to ours, laughing and clapping as her boy hit the small ball.

Once again I felt the pang of pain in my chest because of my infertility. I was quite aware of how eager Timothy was for children, which I'll never be able to give him.

Finding my slippers, I put them on and went to the sliding door which led to the small backyard to join my favorite geek and the small boy playing ball in the first hours of this cold morning.

The noise of the sliding paper doors distracted McGee. The little boy was finally able to hit the ball he pitched to him, going over McGee's head and landing several feet away in the backyard of another officer's house.

"Hey, you're awake." He said with a smile. I watched as the little boy dropped the bat, said something in Japanese then run after the ball; his mother's eyes carefully following him.

"Enjoying yourself?" I rubbed my arms trying to get warm as I approach him in the backyard.

"Yeah," McGee said, glancing embarrassed at me before looking at the boy's mother.

The Japanese lady stood up from the steps and approached McGee's side. "Ah... let me introduce you to our host, Mistato."

"Minako," she corrected him softly, smiling at me and bowing in the traditional way.

"Yeah, that, Minako."

We exchanged the mandatory polite greetings in Japanese as McGee fidgeted in the cold morning waiting for us to finish.

"Agent Riggins called and told me there are plenty of seats on the trains towards Sendai, all we have to do is drop by his office and he will get us the tickets for the next train up north."

He pointed to the boy's mother, "Minako is Senior Petty Officer Johansen's wife. She had met Petty Officer Travis when he was assigned to Tokyo."

Minako nodded, "Will Travis was a good man. Very serious and shy. Liked to play with Yori." She pointed to her boy who runs back to McGee's side with the ball on his hand.

"Can we play more?" The little boy leaned his head back so he could look at the tall adult who was playing with him.

"I'm sorry, buddy. I gotta go to work."

"Ah.. but when you're done, we can play again, no?" God bless the ingenuity and intelligence of a child. I glanced up with a small smirk at McGee who shoves his hands deeply in his trouser's pockets.

"Ah..."

"Tell you what," I crouched on the ground so I'm on the same eye level of the gorgeous little boy who looks adorable with that bowl hair cut stopping right over his eyes. "When we're finished both McGee and I will play with you. What do you think?"

The little boy's grin was huge as he excitedly jumped into my arms hugging me tightly. I glanced at McGee who is smiling down at me and the little boy finally lets me go, running excitedly to his mother's side.

"The agents will play baseball with me, mama!"

"Yes, they will." She smiled placidly to her boy before looking at us. "Get dressed and ready; you are my guests for breakfast."

NCIS NCIS NCIS

After a delicious breakfast prepared by our host, we dropped by the Yokosuka NCIS office to talk to Agent Riggins who promptly booked us on the first Tohoku Shinkansen 東北新幹線, the Japanese bullet train, up to Sendai Station 仙台, located exactly 325.4 kilometers north of Tokyo according to the Rail Map Agent Riggins printed out for us.

"This is in Japanese." McGee muttered, pouting, as he looked at the ideograms over the dots which represented the stations.

"My English maps were all taken by a bunch of sailors I had in here last week. All you have to know is that you have to disembark here." He pointed to a dot approximately in the middle of the train route north. "Just count the stations and you will find your way."

He looked at the piles of papers and files littering his desk before scratching his head and turning to us again. "I've also requested for a rental to be delivered to you at the station."

"Thanks for your help, Agent Riggins." McGee put the map in his pocket and shook the black agent's hand firmly.

"I'll be here when you're done up north. Don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything else."

"We appreciate that." We shook hands with Agent Riggins again and rushed to the station for our bullet train ride.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

We soon were on board of one of the best examples of technology Japan could offer; crossing Tokyo city in only minutes before finding ourselves on fast track rails that soon put behind the blaring lights of the city, being substituted green fields.

McGee came back from the loo and sat beside me as I sat watching the scenery speeding past us, "Amazing isn't it?" McGee said, wiping his hand in a handkerchief. "If you think about the difficult times they've gone through after WWII and the consecutive economical crisis they've been in the last two decades alone... It's amazing how they've been able to get themselves up again."

I took my eyes from the rolling fields and turned to McGee, "They are an amazing people. They withstood wars, famine and natural disasters over and over again. I'm sure if they are tested again they would simply rebuild as they've always done."

"Why do you think that makes them so persistent? Always striving for perfection?"

"I think..." I slid my hand sideways over the small tabletop in front of us until I touch McGee's with my fingers. He immediately took my smaller hand in his engulfing it in his palm. "Tim, everything they do, they do it thinking about the future. They have a milenar culture in which the perception of time is measured by thousands of years, not by decades.

"They know that what they do today has the potential of lasting thousands of years. That's what keeps them going. It's different from America where people are afraid of getting old so they are running to plastic surgeons to correct real or imagined defects in their faces or their bodies. Here they not only embrace old age but they honor it. They do have their problems. Their set ways may seem strange to us or even unacceptable sometimes, but it's been their way for thousands of years. It's what defines them."

McGee's gaze fixed on the rolling pastures outside where a city would appear just to be put behind with the majestic backdrop of the mountains.

"Yeah, you're right. What right do we have to criticize their culture if it has been around for thousand years? And what makes us think that our way is the right one?"

"Exactly, it's right for **_us_**. But why should it be right for **_them_**?" My eyes landed on a small family sitting a few seats ahead of us; there I could see a mother with her baby in her arms as she pointed to something outside the window making the baby laugh out loud.

And still the _Shinkansen_ sped through the fields up north.


	12. 仙台 Sendai

**仙台- Sendai**

We arrived at Sendai station at the end of the morning finding the beautiful "City of the Trees" in full activity. According to the tourist pamphlets I got from our very helpful car rental agent, who kindly helped McGee program our destination in the GPS so we could get to Mr. Nihara's house, Sendai had received that name thanks to the 60 _zelkova _trees which flanked _Jozenji_ street.

With approximately one million inhabitants, Sendai was the Capital of the Miyagi Prefecture, one of Japan's nineteen designated cities. It was a very important on high-tech research center in science and engineering departments, thanks to the several Universities which turned the city in an academic hive.

As I read the information on the city to McGee, I hummed at it wondering if any of my mom's engineers at Nellis were Japanese.

"How far are we from Nihara's house?" McGee asked as he stopped in a crossroad, the lights red for us and several Toyota and Nissan cars made a turn to enter the avenue we were driving by.

"It's approximately fifteen minutes down this avenue before we have to turn to the left towards the seaside. Nihara's house is in a small fisherman's neighborhood just one mile from the sea, on the outskirts of Sendai."

"Do you think he will be willing to talk to us?"

"I don't know. But maybe when we explain the reason why we tracked him down and tell him that Travis is dead he _might _open up to us."

The lights turned green and McGee drove off towards the coast.

It was exactly one pm.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Mr. Nihara's small neighborhood was a set of several wooden houses carefully painted in pastel colors flanking the river. Most of the young people were working in the industries a couple of miles away. The old, the wives and the children were left alone for the duration of the day.

We drove by a small park where we saw many senior citizens, one looking more ancient than the other, sitting around board games playing _Go _or _Mahjong_.

We checked our directions again realizing that we were just a few blocks away. We drove further north five minutes and found some traditional houses side by side all with carefully tended gardens in front.

Our GPS indicated that we were in our destination. We stopped our rental and slowly got out, not finding any sign of activity in the houses. The wind played on some wind chimes hanging from the windows, bringing a soft melody which mixed with the shouts of the seagulls flying over the small fishing port just a few blocks away.

As we walked up the pathway towards the small blue house I caught one of Mr. Nihara's neighbors peeking at us from her window. As our eyes met she immediately hid behind the curtain but her curiosity still drove her to look again and her eyes showed not only curiosity but also fear which immediately put me on guard.

"Nice ride." McGee commented out of the blue distracting me from my staring contest with the old lady.

"Uhmm?"

"Nice motorcycles," he pointed to a pair of beautiful sea green motorcycles parked beside the door of Mr. Nihara's house under the partial roof of his one car garage. "If I'm not mistaken those are Yamaha R6 sport bikes."

I immediately tensed, drawing my weapon and leaning forward, not willing to be seen by anyone who might be inside the house.

McGee followed my lead and we both ran to get out of sight of the windows. We were leaning against the wooden walls and we slowly approached the garage. When we were within reach I put one hand over the engine, "It's still warm."

"What's wrong?"

I checked the cartridge of my gun aware of the danger we might be.

"Yamaha racing bikes are one of Yakusa soldiers' favorite toys." I said slowly approaching the door of the house as I tried to hear anything inside. McGee immediately realized the seriousness of the situation. We both approached the door; he took the lead and crouched towards the wooden door with me covering his six.

We could hear faint voices coming from somewhere inside the house. McGee signaled to me that he was going to kick the door open, but we froze once we recognized the sound of a gun being loaded.

McGee turned around and pushed me back, covering my body a few seconds before the door was blown out with a hail of gunfire. We landed hard on the ground a few feet back and started crawling away from the gunfire until we were hidden behind some earth filled metal boxes which were used as small herb gardens. Once there we waited until the hail of gunfire stopped so we could retaliate.

"Are you hurt?" He shouted over the noise, flinching as more gunfire came sizzling over our heads.

"No, you?"

We heard the sound of doors being slammed shut in the back, then heavy footsteps running out of the house. We left our safe hiding place and ran towards the door, finding it riddled with bullet holes.

McGee kicked it open and I followed him, offering him cover, but there was no one around.

"Clear," he shouted as he advanced to the next room and checked it. I went to the next room, looking into every niche for some unsavory surprise.

"Clear," I shouted back before I advanced to the next room. However, before I take another step, the roar of powerful motorbikes caught our attention and we rushed out to see two men racing away on Yamahas.

We fired a few rounds, but their machines were too fast as they zigzagged out of the village making our guns basically useless.

Besides, there were people on the street and we didn't want to hurt any civilians by mistake.

"Did you catch the license plate?" I asked out of breath.

"No, I didn't. Besides, it was in Japanese." He glanced at me and I nodded, defeated.

We ran back to Mr. Nihara's home, searching each room until we found him in agony on the floor of his bedroom.

Several stab wounds on his chest and abdomen were a silent testimony to the brutality of the Yakusa soldiers towards a defenseless old man.

McGee immediately started dialing emergency as I rushed to Mr. Nihara's side; my hands immediately went to his knife wounds to staunch the bleeding.

Somehow he was still alive, his eyes shining with pain as they fixed on mine. He gasped and moved his lips so I leaned towards his face trying to hear what he was saying.

**"助け,**" he grabbed my arm as I applied direct pressure with my hands against one of the many the wounds on his chest.

_"Hello, ah... Anybody there speaks English?"_

"You're going to be fine," I said, trying to calm Nihara down despite the rich dark red blood oozing between my fingers and the pressure I'm applying to his wounds.

_"No, man, no Japanese. English, a man was attacked here, we need an ambulance."_

"No, help Tezeri," he said in English squeezing my arm again. One of his trembling hands went to his neck and found a small pendant in there. The delicate piece of jewelry was covered in blood from his many wounds.

"What?" I pressed my hands harder on his wounds.

"Tezeri, help Tezeri," he moaned, his clenched teeth chattering in pain as he stared at me for a moment, his grip on my arm cutting off my circulation. Suddenly his body violently convulsed and his eyes rolled back before he died.

My hands were still pressing down his wounds as his head lolled to one side; I moved one hand to check a pulse at his neck and found none.

"No, no, no."

"The ambulance will be here soon," McGee said as soon as he disconnected the phone, kneeling beside me. I sat forlornly at the floor beside the dead body of Mr. Nihara.

"Don't bother. He's already dead." I said, wiping my forehead leaving a red streak on it thanks to my bloodied hands.

"Damn," said McGee looking sadly at the old man.

"He gave me this," I showed McGee the necklace with an old, delicate locket on it.

"What's that supposed to be?"

"I don't know. But he said that we have to help Tezeri," I gave him the locket, as his hand were clean - not bloodied like mine - and he had a better grip on the delicate locket. He opened it after a bit of a struggle with the lock and found a small paper inside it.

"What's that?"

He unfolded the tiny piece of paper and showed it to me, "There's some kind of message here."

I shivered and stood up, eager to be on the way, "It's not a message. It's an address."

We looked at each other and said in unison, "Tezeri!"


	13. 地震  Earthquake

**地震 - Earthquake**

There was no warning at all or fluttering of birds suddenly taking flight to indicate the impending disaster. At first it was just a soft, undulating movement, which made the wind chimes hanging from the windows move like pendulums.

Then came the shaking and roaring of the Earth; it breathed and expanded like a living thing, creating deep fissures in the asphalt and cement. The destruction brought terror to all beings and those inside ran to seek shelter under door beams or sturdy tables.

Everywhere people ran seeking refuge from ceilings which were crumbling over their heads. Those in the cars struggled to keep them in their lanes, but many were unsuccessful.

Yet, the Japanese people are aware of the fury of the land they live in and their eagerness to endure despite nature's rage led them to build with alternative materials. Traditional houses are built with wood, bamboo and paper. These materials, in the event of an earthquake, fall apart, but rarely kill the house occupants. Japanese architecture universities spend billions of yen annually creating new technologies for earthquake-safe buildings. So, as the earth moved and bled, the number of constructions which came down was very minimal.

However, the streets and highways were hit the worst: vehicles of all sizes fell into gaping crevices like they were nothing more than Hot Wheels toys in the hands of an overeager toddler.

The two motorcycles from Sendai were speeding down the toll-road towards Natori when the earthquake hit. The road before them cracked and sank a few inches, making an incoming truck lose control and crash head-on into a car. The car blew up and set fire to the highly flammable truck contents.

The bikers didn't have enough time and distance to brake: One hit a gaping, new hole in the asphalt and was thrown off his bike to land in a bloody, fleshy heap several feet away; while the other, much less fortunate, hit his brakes too abruptly at high speed, locking up his wheels and causing a loss of control. His bike fell and both biker and bike slid many yards –uncontrolled- into the flames of the previous accident.

And those deaths were just the beginning.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Did you find the address?" McGee sped out of the small village by the sea towards the south, following along the river.

"It's a small district south of Natori," I glance at the GPS, trying to figure out the direction we're supposed to take. "There's a toll road straight ahead, you have to go South."

"Here?"

"Yep."

We entered the Sendai-Tobu Toll Road and I held tight as McGee sped down it, overtaking slower moving cars with our rented Toyota Previa. As he clenched his fingers around the steering wheel and overtook another car, I checked our remaining distance to our destination.

"How much farther?"

"Approximately twenty five kilometers down the road," He glances at me, frowning and I can't help but feel that he has perfected the Gibbs-glare, even if it's not as effective coming from McGee. "More or less fifteen miles."

He turned his eyes back to the road, speeding up to overtake another car, "They're four or five minutes ahead of us and their motorcycles are much faster than us."

I looked around the interior of the Previa, which was a car designed for comfort, not speed. "You miss the Porsche, don't you?" He made a face at me and I laughed lightly, "Pity we couldn't bring it with our carry-on bags."

We drove down the road for a couple of minutes, my eyes on the GPS and McGee's on the road. We cut through the edge of a small suburb of Sendai until we reached numerous fields of cultivated rice.

We drove by a small community located between the rice fields, the delicate houses carefully tended by their owners. On our right, after the fields, we could see commercial buildings and the majestic, snow-topped mountains in the background. On our left, endless rice fields stretch almost to the ocean, stopping at a thick column of trees.

We reached an intersection where the Sendai-Nambu toll road merged with Sendai-Tobu. After we drove through it we noticed something strange happening right before our eyes: **_The road ahead of us started moving!_**

"McGee!... _MCGEE_!..._**MCGEE**_!"

My eyes glued on the cars ahead of us, their wheels seeming to be jumping from the asphalt, McGee hit the brakes to slow down but we were still moving.

The vibration seemed to intensify as our speed was cut. I saw the other drivers doing the same, some even stopping and abandoning their cars in the middle of the road, taking refuge in the tree line on the side of the road. The shaking increased until we felt like we were on a gelatin-like surface.

"STOP THE CAR!" I screamed, terrified, noticing the car in front of us losing control and hitting a tree.

McGee hit the brakes violently, forcing the car into a forty-five degree angle then looked at me in panic.

The car, despite being stopped and with the brakes applied, was still moving; we could see the asphalt ahead of us cracking, its fissure coming towards our parked car.

"We have to get out, NOW!" McGee shouted, his hands flying to his seatbelt, his urgency transmitting to me. I tried to unlock the strap holding me prisoner and I sighed, relieved, when I was finally free, stepping out of the car at the exact moment a three inch fissure ran under it.

I stared at it in shock until I felt strong hands at my shoulders pulling me away from the car. McGee rushed me towards the tree line and, once we were across it, we reached a small, rural lane. We stumbled our way towards one of the many rice fields, falling on our knees on the bright, green cover as walking became almost impossible due to the strong shakes.

I shut my eyes tightly and hugged him, feeling his arms surrounding me as the earth seemed to move more violently than before. We faintly heard far away screams and explosions, as gas lines were ruptured and secondary fires erupted in small dwellings a few yards away from us.

The shaking intensified into a crescendo. I felt dizzy and we couldn't stay on our knees anymore; so we both fell onto our sides on the ground and waited until the fury of the earthquake ended.

Finally, after almost a whole minute, the shaking diminished and stopped. The only thing I heard was the crazy beating of my heart. McGee's rapid breathing brushed against my neck as he crushed me in his arms for fear of what was going on around us.

He has always lived in states where the land was firm under his feet; unlike myself who has faced some very terrifying shaking while living in L.A.

I have to confess: I hate earthquakes. Mostly because of one little fact: The earthquake by itself rarely kills people.

The aftershocks are the ones that kill the most.

Another explosion happened a few miles away from us, its boom travelling at high speed over the fields and reaching us like a punch, making us cringe and flinch.

"Is it over now?" McGee asked against my neck, his arms shaking around me.

I pushed against his chest, trying to get some breathing space between us, before I looked up into his face and I almost wept as I found his terrified eyes on me. I touched his cheek gently, just to be certain that he was fine and breathing.

"I think so."

We slowly sat, looking around us for a moment trying to get our bearings. The small dwellings that were just a couple of yards to our right are no more; the roof tiles were all on the ground and we could hear the screams of hurt or trapped people.

Further away, where the city lies, we could see fire and smoke popping up here and there.

Shock and fear settled deeply in our hearts as McGee stood then helped me up and, after cleaning up the dirty from our clothes, we took wobbly steps back to the highway. The scenery we found was something out of those disaster movies Tony is so found of: cars crashed or overturned, disoriented people wandering around and the road a mixed-up jigsaw puzzle, with craters and deep gashes everywhere.

McGee left me leaning against a tree and ran to the nearest car where a young woman was trying to get rid of her seatbelt.

I vaguely heard the murmur of voices as he tried to communicate with her; I lifted my eyes and looked west towards the placid waters of the Pacific just one mile away.

My mind tried to work around the fear and panic churning in my gut, trying insistently to give a warning, a message.

Earthquake.

Waterfront.

Earthquake.

Water.

Water.

"Tsunami," I muttered, leaving the tree behind and staring at the dark green line of trees that separated the rice fields of the beach. "Oh my God, my God, MY GOD!"

I ran in panic towards McGee, my hands grabbing his arm and shaking him as bile rises and mixes with fear.

"What's wrong?"

"Tim, we... we..." I pointed towards the water, "the... we … we have to get to higher ground. Now." I felt my whole body shaking and I was vaguely aware that shock was settling in.

"We have to help the victims, Joy," He turned back to get the Japanese woman out of the car, but my hand on his arm stopped him, my fingers sinking into the flesh of his biceps.

"No, you don't understand. We're vulnerable here," I was almost in tears, as I didn't know how to explain it to him.

"Vulnerable to what?"

"To that!" I pointed again towards the Pacific Ocean. "McGee, this was a very big earthquake and there will still be aftershocks. We have to get to higher ground."

"Why?"

"Timothy, the Japanese invented the word _tsunami_. An earthquake like this is bound to create one. It lasted more than one minute and it was stronger than any other I've ever felt in L.A. We're close to the sea and such power will probably create a tsunami as big as or bigger than the one which wiped Banda Aceh in Indonesia from the map in 2005. If we stay in open areas like this so close to the sea we're as good as dead."

Finally the danger sank into his mind and he visibly paled as he briefly looked in the direction where we could see many houses built just behind the wall of trees. After those trees, just a very narrow line of sand led to the green waters of the Pacific.

"Oh my... what do we do? What do we do?"

Now he was panicking with me. I took a deep breath and looked at the young Japanese woman holding her hurt arm against her chest; she was looking desolated at the destruction of her car. I ran to her and spoke a long time with her in Japanese. Finally, I had the info I needed, "She told me that there's an airport five miles down the road, it's almost six floors high and we might take refuge in the higher floors."

"But in a tsunami like this, if it is as bad as we imagine it will be, would it hold?"

"I don't know." I looked desperately around, "I don't know."

McGee leaned his torso forward, his hands supported on his flexed knees, taking deep breaths to calm down. I looked around and saw other people coming back to the road and towards their own cars.

"Okay, let's go." He walked towards the Japanese lady, took her into his arms and ran towards the car, "Joy, you drive!"

He carefully helped the young lady into the backseat, hopped into the passenger seat at the same time that I started the car and drove away, our tires leaving dark streaks of burnt rubber on the now cracked asphalt.


	14. 助け  Help

**助け**** - Hel****p**

Our escape from the waters we knew were on their way was complicated by the fact that basically there was no more road to drive anymore. The asphalt was destroyed in some sections and it took a lot of creativity to overcome the cracks on it, as well as trying not to hit any of the parked cars left on the toll road.

We soon drove on the bridge over Natori river and the Japanese lady informed us that one mile after the next bridge there would be the exit for the airport. I pushed harder the car, eager to be somewhere safe, feeling my nerves burning with tension. Here and there I would throw a nervous glance at McGee, whose eyes were flitting from one abandoned car to the other, seeing the people wandering on the edge of the road or sitting desolated on the grass with their hands supporting their heads.

His eyes suddenly became round as saucers and he shouted at me, at the same time my attention returned to the road and we saw a young teenager waving his arms desperately, standing in collision course right in front of us.

I hit the brakes and somehow I avoided hitting him with the car. The teenager ran to McGee's side and started to shout, pointing desperately at something behind the tree line.

"I don't understand," McGee said shaking his head, eager to be in his way.

"He says his grandmother needs help. He can't move her alone," I translated, looking desperately at the road ahead of us, wanting to drive off but feeling that young boy's desperation.

"How much time we have?"

"I don't know. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes." He gulped nervously as he looked at me before he opened the door, signaling to the crying teenager to lead the way.

He followed him beyond the tree line, finding some neat houses which were partially collapsed. I spoke softly to the lady in our car and left her alone, following McGee and the boy until I found them trying to move some debris which was covering an old lady, just her legs visible to us.

McGee and the teenager moved the debris until only a heavy wooden beam stayed. Both applied great strength on it, moving it slightly. The woman spoke non stop with her grandson. I crawled under them and started digging around the old lady, trying to free her out of the rubble. Both McGee and the teenager groaned under the heavy weight of the support bean, but their efforts were not in vain as I could drag her out slowly until she was finally in my arms, shaking and crying.

Both McGee and the teenager let go of the beam; the boy ran to his grandmother, crying in her arms as she hugged him. McGee stood up on shaking feet and I saw the exact moment when he wobbled around, so I rushed to his side and hugged him so he could support himself on me.

"You okay?"

"How much time we have?" he asks tiredly, eager to be on our way.

I looked again at my wristwatch, "not much, we've stayed here five minutes, let's go."

McGee and I turned to both boy and grandmother, urging them to come with us. The woman shook her head, pointing to the next house and stomping her foot on the floor.

I spoke to her, pointing at the road where we must go and I could literally feel McGee's questioning gaze burning the back of my head.

"What's she saying?"

"She's saying that her neighbor is still in there." I pointed to the next house, its door askew and part of the ceiling collapsed to the side.

"We have to go."

"She's pregnant, McGee." I said in a quivering voice, begging him to understand her plight.

He nodded after a moment to think, giving me permission to at least try. He took the fragile old woman in his arms and started walking towards our car. I ran in the other direction, towards the rubble left of what once was a house, shouting in Japanese and looking for the woman the old lady told us was somewhere in there.

A faint female voice shouted back so I followed it. After looking into two different rooms, I found a young woman, probably in her early twenties, hidden under a very heavy table. Her bruised arms were around her big distended belly, trying to protect the unborn life hidden inside her.

"Come on, we gotta go. The tsunami is coming."

Alarms started ringing, indicating the incoming wall of water. And it spurred our panic.

She started crying as she supported herself against me and we both wobbled our way towards the car.

"Come on, we gotta go!" shouted McGee as soon as he saw me. He ran towards us and half carried, half supported the wounded pregnant lady until she was safely settled with the others in the backseats of the Previa and we both rushed to the front seats. I glanced briefly at him as he started the car and stepped hard on the accelerator, so our Previa started a mad race down the highway towards the airport still a few miles away.

The screaming of the sirens followed us. We saw several people driving in the other direction, towards the highways and the fields behind us, but we were aware that our only chance of surviving what was coming towards us was high ground. We needed to find a solid building and said building had to be as high as possible. Finally the huge structure of Sendai airport loomed to our left at the same time the sirens changed their sound, their blaring becoming even more urgent hurting our ears.

We took the exit of the toll road and sped down towards the main building of the airport, noticing the zigzag of people running to their cars, eager to leave afraid of the aftershocks which were still happening one after the other. We parked in a forbidden spot reserved for taxis and got out of the car. McGee ran to the backseat door and helped the pregnant lady out, who was moaning and crying in pain. He got her in his arms and carried into the terminal, while I stayed behind in order to carry the old lady, who wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck, like a little monkey, so I could carry her in quick steps into the terminal.

The first lady we helped, the one from the car, signaled to us and pointed to the stairs leading to the higher levels. She and the teenager lead the way while McGee and I walked in hurried steps after them, each of us carrying our precious burdens.

The sirens were still blaring, indicating that the danger wasn't over yet. We climbed to the first and second flight of stairs, noticing that there was still another floor before reaching the check in area, but in order to reach it we had to walk through the security of the airport.

There was crowd of people trying to go through but the airport security officers were blocking their access, unwilling to let them pass without going through the metal detector. We watched the crowd of people ready to start a human stampede at any moment, before walking towards some cushioned seats away from the disorganized human mass struggling with the security.

We deposited our precious burdens on the seats and ensured that they were, at least for that moment, unharmed and out of the way of others. The young Japanese lady immediately hugged the crying pregnant lady, while the boy sat on the floor by his grandma's feet, laying his head on her lap as she ran her fingers through his hair trying to comfort him.

We heard the sound of a helicopter flying really low over the airport and that's when we suddenly realized something really weird.

The wailing sound of the sirens had stopped.

I looked confused at McGee, who was all dirty and sweaty from crawling through the debris of the old lady's house. We stood there frozen, aware of the heavy mantle of silence that seemed to cover us as a thick blanket thanks to the lack of the alarm sirens. Even in the terminal people slowly started to realize something big was happening.

The people slowly approached the high windows which flanked both sides of the terminals, trying to see something of what was going on outside and after a few words with the old lady and her grandchild both me and McGee also walked to the windows, looking out towards the sea a few yards away from the end of the tarmac.

There was first silence as the green waters seem to roll back and we could see in the distance a long line of surf steadily approaching the coast.

The waves were coming.

The waves were here.


	15. 津波 – Tsunami

**津波 – Tsunami**

How can one describe the mighty forces of nature, as it tears the land apart as if it was merely silk paper and it mows down wood, houses and boats as if they were made out of fragile twigs?

The silence that surrounded us was gradually substituted by a low roar, as if a dormant beast was finally awake after a long period of hibernation and it was hungry.

Voraciously hungry.

We watched the mighty wave slowly moving, erasing the thin line of sand and destroying the small green area separating the beach from the few houses which were wiped away in seconds.

The wave seemed to move slowly, yet continuously, towards the terminal. We watched horrified when it crossed over the small canal and reached the end of the tarmac. The skies became a deep gray color which mixed with the churning of the foam moving towards us, creating a deep gray mass which connected the heavens and the earth.

The water moved as if it had a will all its own. We faintly heard the screams of those who were still on the lower levels, running towards the stairs to reach the safety of the higher floors and also watched horrified as a few people tried to outrun the waters outside in the parking lot.

They failed.

A few entered their cars and tried to escape, however the waters were unforgiving, engulfing the fragile vehicles and carrying them as if they weighed nothing.

Cars which had been a few seconds before in the parking lot of the airport were carried as if they were merely corks as the water levels increased incredibly fast: in a matter of seconds the waters were already reaching the ceiling of the ground level.

People in panic ran up to where we were as the waters took over the ground floor destroying everything in its path.

Wood, stone, cars and debris were carried by the furious water, its color becoming darkish brown as it became dirty with the detritus it found on its way.

People in the terminal started crying and shouting. Some, more tech-savy, got their cameras or cellphones and started to record the fury of the nature roaring outside.

I vaguely realized that I was shaking. I tried to take some steps back but my feet felt like lead and my sight darkened around the edges, the center focused on the body of a young Japanese man being dragged by the dark waters.

Strong arms engulfed me and guided me away from the windows; I followed him docilely until my legs could not hold me anymore and I fell onto the floor, consciousness slowly slipping away.

"Joy, come on, don't faint on me. Please. Don't do it. Deep breaths. Please Joy." I vaguely heard McGee's terrified voice; it sounded as if he was very far away.

I lifted shaking arms and wrapped them around his neck, hiding my face against his chest, feeling a shout of pain stuck in my chest. He lowered his head to my neck, begging me over and over to stay with him as he had no idea what to do now. We both flinch when there was a huge noise and the creaking of metal bending under enormous pressure. We both looked towards the windows and watched horrified as part of the metal ceiling which covered the parking lot was carried away by the waters.

We stayed there horrified, watching nature destroy everything in its path, incapable of moving from the floor, as the Japanese around us screamed and shouted, running from one window to the other, trying to find a better view of the waters which were destroying their countryside.

So we knelt there on the marble floor of the Sendai airport, as the world around us was reduced to rubble and the screams of the dying were cut off abruptly by the gurgling of the waves.


	16. 水 – Water

_**水 – Water**_

I don't know how much time passed until the roaring of the waves dimmed and became just a soft murmur, creating a muddy flat water surface outside the terminal.

The sun was able to break through the dark clouds with its feeble light, creating a silver reflection on the now calm waters outside. It almost looked like a reflexive pool, one that now covered what once was houses and rice fields.

McGee sniffed and squeezed me lightly, rubbing a hand over his face before sitting more comfortably on the floor. I sat back on the cold stone floor and looked at his face, which had streaks of dirt here and there. His jacket was ripped on one of its sleeves, and I stuck one of my fingers in the hole and touched the skin beneath it, finding a deep scratch on his arm.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No," he lifted an arm and grimaced as he rubbed his tired eyes with his hands, distractedly wiping a tear that insisted on escaping. "Nothing fatal. I'll live."

We took the time to look around the terminal and the desolate scene was heartbreaking. Everywhere we looked we could see people crying or in shock, staring out of the windows. Others were sitting on the floor, trying to use their now useless cell phones. Most just cried.

The security officers gave up and let everyone rush to the higher floors, where they could watch horrified as the waters carried away trucks and airplanes as if they weighed less than nothing.

"We have to call Gibbs," I said, thinking about how they will react with the lack of news from our part.

McGee dug around his pockets until he found his IPhone. He tried to find a signal any signal but was unsuccessful. The signal towers must have been washed away with the houses, cars and people.

"It's dead."

"As most of the people outside are too," I said, looking at the murky waters now covering what just a few minutes before was the parking lot of the airport.

"Come here," he wrapped his around my shoulders, bringing me against his chest. I sniffed as I remembered the people we had driven past on the toll road. The people who went in the other direction towards the fields. Apparently McGee's mind was worried about the same thing, as he sighed and squeezed me before muttering against my hair. "You think..."

"What?"

"The people we drove by. The ones by the road." I looked up at him, finding his eyes haunted by the images of the water covering everything outside. "Do you think they...?"

I shook my head, desolated to squash his hope down.

"They didn't make it."

"They might have found a safe place as we did. I bet they are fine."

I wipe my face drying my shock tears and I'm surprised to notice that, somehow, my hands are still covered with dried blood. "No McGee. They aren't fine. I think the only buildings left standing in several miles radius are the ones that belong to the airport. The water destroyed everything else."

He sighed and closed his eyes, resting his forehead against my hair as I looked around the terminal and found the ladies we brought in our car as well as the old woman and her grandchild. Our eyes meet for a moment and the old lady bows her head, silently thanking me for saving hers and the boy's lives.

"I think it's over now." McGee said with his eyes still closed, letting exhaustion finally settle in.

"No, it's not. This is just the beginning."


	17. 恐れ fear

**_恐れ - FEAR_**

It was the insistent ringing of the phone that woke up Gibbs in the middle of the night. They had spent most of the previous afternoon trying to crack the tough veneer of Mr. Tezeri's ego, however he just smiled and said nothing. His bodyguard wasn't very informative either.

Gibbs' interview with Petty Officer Travis' supervisor was delightful... for Gibbs. He had the pleasure of making mincemeat of the man, dragging up to light the petty persecution campaign he had been perpetrating towards the young officer and still had him admitting falsifying documents in order to ensure that the young man would not receive the approval for his successive leave requests.

With the right information in hands, they had been able to track down the nonimmigrant visa request for spouse Travis had applied for his wife as soon as he stepped onto American soil. The visa process had been completed and all Travis needed to legally bring his wife to America was to have the visa issued and wait for the processing of the immigrant visa case.

But thanks to his supervisor, he hadn't been able to go back to collect his wife. And her brother followed him and killed him, showing no mercy to the man who had stolen his baby sister from the care of the family.

The telephone rang again and Gibbs looked around briefly disoriented, surprised to have fallen asleep on his bed instead of under his boat. He crawled towards the bedside table and turned the light on, before taking the phone in his hand. He blinks at the hour on the red numbers before answering it. It was four thirty six in the morning.

"What?" he croaked, mad that someone dared to interrupt his very few hours of sleep.

"Turn on the news, Gibbs," said Vance, the urgency in his voice immediately put Gibbs on alert.

"What's wrong Leon?"

Gibbs stood up, trying to put his pants over his boxers, just to sit down again on his bed when he heard Vance's next words.

"There's been an earthquake in Japan. A huge one." Gibbs shook his head, trying to make sense of what he's saying, trying to deny the truth that Vance is pouring on him.

"They're saying it reached 8.9 Richter scale. It's been all over the news for the last hour." Gibbs closed his zipper and left the bedroom, marching towards the stairs so he can go to the basement, where the only TV is.

"Any casualties?"

"The numbers are still unofficial, but they are saying that over two hundred people died. But this is just their initial figures as they haven't finished counting the dead yet. But that's not the bad news."

"It gets worse?"

"Much worse. After the earthquake, the northeast coast of Japan was assaulted by a massive tsunami. It literally wiped away whole cities and advanced several miles inland, destroying everything in its path."

At that moment, Gibbs was already in front of his TV, watching horrified as ZNN transmitted scenes of the massive waves hitting the coast.

"Leon what about..."

"Gibbs, the city of Sendai is no more."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

One hour later, Gibbs walked into the bullpen holding three different cups, saluting Tony and Ziva who were hard at work on their phones trying to contact the Yokosuka office. He deposited one on Tony's desk, who smiled thinly before going back to his phone call before turning to Ziva, who just put her phone down. He handed her the cup and she immediately started sipping it.

He had called them as soon as he had disconnected the call with Leon and informed them of the situation. Both agents were in minutes back into NCIS and had been trying to contact someone or anyone in the Yokosuka office for the last forty minutes.

"Any news?" Gibbs takes a sip of his coffee, feeling the burning liquid invigorating him and kicking the sleepiness away.

"There were minor damages to the Far East Office as at least six agents were taken with injuries to the hospital, most resultant of shelves or things falling over the agents at the office."

"Any word on McGee and Buchanan?"

Ziva looked down to her cup, where she could feel the steam of the hot tea floating up to her face. "The agent who was acting as liaison for McGee and Buchanan was taken to the Naval Hospital in Yokosuka with severe injuries. He was the only one who knew exactly where they were going up north."

Gibbs sighed and looked up towards the ceiling, getting ready for more bad news, which Ziva promptly gave him. "He was in his car parking it near a restaurant when the earthquake hit. The concrete marquee of the restaurant detached with the shaking and... it fell over several cars, his included. He was admitted in intensive care." Ziva put her tea cup over the table, looking up at Gibbs with saddened eyes. "He might not make it."

"So nobody else can tell us where exactly McGee and Buchanan were heading."

"They were last seen at the Sendai station at 11:46 am local time." Tony said, disconnecting his phone. Ziva and Gibbs turn to him, who supports his joined hands over his table before continuing, "I was able to speak to one of the agents who works beside Agent Riggins desk and he remembers Riggins talking with McGee and Buchanan and handing them the tickets for the next train towards the north." He stood up and went to the plasma, showing a map of the rail system in the isle of Honshu. "Japanese trains run on precise schedules, so if they boarded the train, which I'm sure they did, they would be in Sendai station at the scheduled time for the arrival of the bullet train."

"Any video cameras on the station?" Gibbs stared at the tiny dot on the map, which was the last location of his agents.

Tony glanced at Ziva, who shook her head silently, "Boss, the electricity was cut, the cellphones are down and most of the city was washed away by the wave. Even if they have a closed video circuit, there's no way we can get the images as the whole communication system is down."

"What was their destination once they left the station?"

Both Tony and Ziva stayed in silence, looking at him without answers.

"Can anybody here give answers?" Gibbs shouted, feeling his anguish growing at the guilt of sending his agents to their deaths.

"According to Agent Riggins' partner, they've sent a copy of their itinerary to Riggins but Riggins' computer was destroyed in the earthquake. They are working to retrieve the data on it as we speak but it might take a while."

"Damnit" cursed Gibbs, running shaking hands through his graying hair, feeling his gut twisting with a suspicion that gave him shivers.

They were dead.

They were both dead.

No one could have survived a wave like that.

"Where's Tezeri?"

Tony frowned at the out of the blue question, "In the hold, do you want to interrogate him again?"

"Bring him to interrogation; I want to show him a nice video from home." Gibbs snarled as he walked away while both Tony and Ziva went back to their phones, eager to see what Gibbs would do to the Yakusa soldier.


	18. 家族  Family

As I write this, my country is mourning.

This morning a 24 year old man entered a public school in the suburbs in Rio and shot dead 11 children. Of those, nine were girls.

Why someone could be so cruel? It's the first ever school shooting in Brazil. When I wrote Beaufort, I've researched a lot about the shootings in Virginia Tech and I cried while I wrote every single paragraph of the shooting scenes.

But the real thing is always worst.

Why? Why? Why?

* * *

**_家族 - Family_**

Gibbs walked in hurried steps into the interrogation room, slamming the door behind himself. He walked for a few moments like a caged lion, hating the smug look on Tezeri's face. Tony and Ziva hurried to the observation room, eager to watch the battle between the two titans.

Once he felt he was ready to speak, he leaned over the desk supporting his open hands over the desk, staring down the Yakusa soldier who simply smiled politely at him.

"I'm going to tell you what I think happened and you tell me if I'm right or wrong. What do ya think?"

Gibbs sat down and opened his folder with the last info McGee sent to him. "Your sister eloped with an American Navy officer. You got pissed because he hid her from you. So, as she was out of your reach, you decided to kill my petty officer."

"That's a fascinating tale, but as I said. I have never met your petty officer."

"Your sister's name is Keiko Tezeri. She was a Go player who attended Mr. Nihara and Suzuki's game parlor. The two masters introduced Travis to Keiko and after they got together, they helped Travis hide her from you."

Gibbs noticed the smile being wiped out of Tezeri's face, a more sinister and angry look taking its place.

"You tried to force your hand over Nihara, ordering him to give out her hideout but he refused, so you beat the old man almost to the death. In order to stay alive, Nihara left the city, going back to his old town."

"Yet Keiko was still missing, so what better way to find her than to find Travis. He wasn't hiding. So you came all the way to America and used his fists on him, trying to get the truth out of him but he still refused."

Tezeri then surprised him, "He didn't."

Gibbs looked at him frowning, "What do you mean?"

Tezeri smiled again smugly, leaning back into the chair and folding his cuffed hands over the table. "Before he died, once he realized I would not let him live, he told me where Keiko was. So I sent my men to collect her. By now, she is already back home where she should have never left."

Gibbs studied the man before him, smiling satisfied for having completed his mission. He then decided to share his news with the man who had been on hold for the whole night, unaware of the disaster which had happened back home.

"You sent your men to Sendai."

"Yes. So you see, whatever you do to me is unimportant. My mission is fulfilled and she is back to the family."

"You're wrong."

"My men would not fail."

Gibbs took a remote control and clicked so the images live from ZNN started to show the NHK transmission of the waves destroying the cities in Japan. Tezeri frowned as he recognized the Japanese writings, his eyes going from the plasma to Gibbs' face, trying to make sense of it all.

"They've never made it."

"No, you're wrong." Tezeri couldn't hide his incredulity.

"There was an earthquake in Japan a little after two pm local time. It reached 8.9 in the Richter scale. It severely damaged several buildings, but it wasn't the worst to happen, as it created a massive wave..." he changed the channel so the images of the tsunami wave reaching the coast and wiping away everything in its path, carrying boats and cars appeared. It showed also huge fishing boats being carried and hitting bridges, being demolished as match boxes. "The wave reached … in some areas... approximately 16 feet high. It wiped away everything. Houses, buildings, cities,..." Gibbs leaned over the table, supporting his hands on it. "... and people."

"No, this is fake. You are lying."

"Am I?"

Gibbs turned on the sound and the live transmission started to run, showing the destruction and the despair of the people back in Japan.

Tezeri's face crumpled as the reality of the tragedy settled in. "Keiko …" he asked in a quivering voice, unable to continue.

"Your sister is dead. So are your men you sent to Sendai. You see... The city of Sendai is gone, wiped away from the map. There are very few survivors and... the missing are up to hundreds. But the final count is not done yet. It will rise." Gibbs stood up, looking down at Tezeri who finally cracked, staring to mutter in Japanese as he stared horrified at the live footage of the disaster.

Here and there the name of his sister would come up, but mostly just broken words in Japanese came out, until he screamed and stood up, just to be stopped by his cuffs holding him to the table. Gibbs stood his ground, as the brave Yakusa soldier screamed in Japanese towards the TV, crying and in pain, as the scenes of his ravaged country rolled before his tear filled eyes.

"You killed him for nothing." Gibbs muttered, making Tezeri look at him with despair, muttering over and over his sister's name.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

After the interrogation where Tezeri admitted having killed Travis, Gibbs left the killer in the capable hands of Tony and Ziva to book him and headed towards the fire escape. Once there, he let the heavy firedoors close with a thump behind him and sighed deeply, trying to get the courage to make a phone call every team leader abhors making.

He sat down on the first steps and took out his cell phone, looking at it desolated for a few moments before looking for a number in its memory. As the number was dialed, Gibbs rubbed his red eyes until a soft tenor voice answered in the other side of the line.

"Buchanan residence."

"Joseph, this is... Gibbs. Jethro."

In the other side of the country, Joseph glanced to the nurse who was changing the IVs from Maggie. She nodded at him informing that all was well. He took the phone and left the master bedroom, going to the corridor.

"It's been a while Jethro."

"How is Maggie doing?" Maggie Buchanan, after her terrible bout with radiation of alien origins in Nevada, had been finally liberated a couple of weeks before to be moved to the family home in Montana. She was under medical supervision twenty four/seven and her condition had been downgraded from critical to grave.

"One day at a time."Joseph walks down the corridor, worried at the tension he hears in his friend's voice. "But you're not calling to ask about Maggie, are you?"

"No, I'm not."

"Is it Tim or Joy?"

"Ah... Both."

Joseph sighed loudly, before asking his friend to give him the news. "Tell me everything."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

A couple of hours later, the blackout of information continued as the number of victims and missing increased exponentially. The agents received the grievous news that several atomic energy plants had been damaged with the tsunami waves and the horror stories of the survivors piled every single news channel.

The plasma in the bullpen was continuously playing the latest images being broadcasted by NKH and each presented the same picture of despair, desolation and death.

The continuous stream of videos were a silent testimony of the Japanese Nation's high tech spirit, but none of their safeguards in place had been able to help when the ten story high waves crashed Honshu's island coast.

They worked incessantly through the day trying to pierce together their agent's itinerary. The blackout of the mobile phones was problematic as Abby, in her teary eyed explanation to Gibbs a couple of hours before, explained that as the cell towers had been destroyed, there was no way to triangulate the signal of their mobiles.

That if their mobiles were on not bobbing out in the sea together with the drowned bodies of their owners.

Vance came up to the mezzanine and observed the movement of the agents down in the bullpen, and dreaded for a moment to give the information he had just received from the Yokosuka office.

He came down the stairs, his somber face immediately catching Gibbs attention who put the phone back on its cradle and stood up. Vance stood between Tony's and Ziva's table, his dark gaze resting briefly on McGee's table which was empty, before going to Gibbs' face.

"I've just received a call from Yokosuka office. Agent Riggins did not resist the severity of his wounds and expired twenty minutes ago."

Tony closed his eyes and hung his head while Ziva glanced horrified at Gibbs, who was still staring at Vance without moving a muscle.

"The computer...?" Tony asked, hope in his voice just to be crushed again by Vance.

"Apparently during the earthquake there was a power surge in the Yokosuka office. The generators when they kicked in overloaded and literally fried the connections of those computers plugged in. They've tried to retrieve the data in the hard disks, but they were all wiped clean."

Gibbs walked around his desk and towards Vance, "Are you saying we can't even track them down?"

"I'm saying that my hands are tied right now. Unless they had been able to find refuge and hadn't been able to contact us we have to consider the real possibility …

"Don't say it." Gibbs hissed, approaching Vance until he is just one feet away from the Director. "Don't you dare say it out loud."

"What if they are, Gibbs? The dead count is already on several hundreds. And those were the claimed bodies, without considering the unclaimed ones and the reported missing. What will it take for you to accept the very real possibility that they are dead?"

The elevator dinged, opening softly a few seconds before Vance finished speaking, letting a tall man with gray hair and aviator jacket out of it right in time to hear the last words of the director.

"They are not dead," said Joseph Buchanan, interrupting Vance and Gibbs. He stopped right beside Ziva's desk, looking calmly towards them. He nods to Ziva and Tony, before resting calm eyes on Gibbs' worried ones.

"Jethro, it's good to see you, my friend," he offers his hand, which is shaken firmly by the team leader.

"Joseph, you didn't have to come all the way here. Maggie needs you."

Joseph smiled thinly, before glancing at Vance and nodding at him as salutation, "Maggie is well cared for. Grace and her husband are over there hovering about her." Towards Vance, he said, "Director, don't give up on them yet."

"How can you be so sure they aren't dead?"

Joseph sighed and shook his head, before lifting calm eyes towards Vance. "Albert Einstein once said 'God may be subtle, but He isn't plain mean.' God hasn't spared my daughter from the hands of pedophiles, psychopaths and sociopaths during years while in BAU, saving her from the brink of death of bullets and knife wounds to have her killed by something insurance companies call 'an act of God.'"

He walked up at Gibbs, putting his hand on the leader's shoulder, "They are alive. They are stranded, maybe hurt. But they are alive. Joy lived for years in LA and she knows the routine of an earthquake. She would have looked for shelter as soon as she realized the danger they were in. Now it's up to us to find where they are and make sure that help reaches them before their situation becomes worse than it already is."

"How can we find them?" Ziva asked, "The cell phones are down and we don't even know where to start looking for them."

"Gibbs mentioned that you had an idea of the general area they were by a certain time of the day. We could start from there."

Gibbs studied Joseph's calm demeanor and squinted at the older Buchanan. "You know something." He accused him, just to receive a brief glance from Joseph, who kept quiet.

Vance squinted at the older Buchanan, "If you have any information and you are not sharing, I..."

"Director," Joseph interrupted him, lifting a hand to calm down Vance. "As a father, I would know if something happened to my child. I've known every single time her life was in danger. I felt it when she was shot by Jarod the first time. I felt it when she was shot the second time too. If there was even the remotest chance of her being dead, I would know."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Do you have children?"

"Yes. A boy and a girl."

"Then you know what I'm talking about."


	19. 治療 – Healing

_**治療 – Healing**_

As the proverb says, '_after the storm comes a calm'_. The roar of the waters slowly dimmed until they became a soft murmur, rushing on the ground floor of the airport.

I stood by the windows of the check in area for a long time, trying to find anything in our sight that hadn't been destroyed. But the waters had carried everything in its path and covered the rice fields as far as one could see. After some hours I decided that I couldn't stomach seeing that destruction anymore, so I stepped away from the huge windows which showed airplanes, trucks and cars being carried away and went back to the mezzanine where I had left McGee.

During the first hours of that nightmare, one of the tensest moments was when a huge fishing boat was carried towards the neighboring building. The noise of it hitting the concrete walls startled the people hiding in there and we could see some cracks on the structure appearing on its walls. But the building held on, while the boat became nothing more than debris. Some children and adults started crying again and the murmur of terrified voices finally penetrated the deep fog of shock that surrounded me and McGee.

I walked up to him, who was standing over the old lady we had helped after giving her his jacket, as the temperature was quite chilly in the main mezzanine. I stopped in the middle of the floor, looking around at the people surrounding us, most of them either scared or wounded thanks to the initial earthquake.

"What next?" McGee left the old lady and came to my side and I was suddenly very glad to have him with me.

"We survive. No matter what it takes," I turned to him, saying in my most serious voice. "No matter what it costs, we survive."

He looked at my face, looking for something in my eyes that, once found, made him smile thinly. Biting his lower lip, in two steps he had me in his arms and I was engulfed in his warmth. Again, in my darkest hour when my strength and my faith seem to falter, I was reassured by his heart, rhythmically beating against my ear that yes, things were bad... but they would, eventually, get better.

We silently agreed to look for the airport security and with the officers' help we started to herd all survivors to the main mezzanine, closer to the bathrooms and the food court. We suggested to the officers the possibility of checking the several piles of suitcases in the hold, so we could forage for clothing, socks and gloves for those who weren't exactly prepared for the cold temperatures ahead.

The officers quickly organized themselves and went to the food court, bringing from storage several gallons of drinking water and organized a rationing system for it.

Food would be another matter completely different, as the first earthquake had damage some plane fuel tanks located just a couple hundred yards from the main building. Its explosion rattled the windows but thankfully did little damage to the main structure. However, afraid of secondary explosions, the fire brigade inside the terminal cut the access of the cooking gas lines. Then the water came, covering everything and effectively cutting off all supply.

The main power supply was cut, but the auxiliary generators kicked in as they weren't on the ground level, but on the third, thanks to some curious Japanese engineering. The building was also supplied with solar photo cells panels, but together, the solar panels and the emergency generators could not create enough power to keep the whole building lit and warm.

So, we gradually dimmed the lights everywhere else except in the main mezzanine, making a small cocoon of light and warmth where we gathered the sixty something people who were all together in this nightmare with us.

People slowly started to accumulate on the floors or chairs, trying to get the clothes or blankets we were passing along to them. We also started to take care of the injured, thanks to small emergency bags that we were able to arrange from the emergency supply of the terminal.

We had clean water and dry biscuits, some fruits and crackers for a while. But not for long.

We were deeply aware that we had very difficult times ahead of us, but we were not letting that bring us down.

McGee went to treat the injured with first aid on one side of the terminal while I started on the other. Most were scratches, some cuts and bruises that we could only clean with the meager supplies available to us. Improvised cots were made so the elderly could rest on the floor and some children ran from one adult to the other, demanding attention, not really aware of the destruction which was rolling over the land just a few feet away from us.

McGee finally arrived at the old lady who we had saved from the rubble and her grandchild. He tried to clean the bloodied scratches on her arms, just to have his efforts frustrated as she batted away his hands, despite his attempts to hold her limbs still so he could apply the alcohol embedded cloth against the scratches.

"Come on," he muttered, trying to hold her arm but she moaned and started speaking very fast in Japanese, waving her hand in the air in front of his face.

The teenager, just a little older than twelve, giggled as he stared the old lady arguing with the tall blond man.

"Can you please tell her that I'm just trying to help?" He told the boy, his patience running out very quickly.

"She says that it burns." The boy said, his accent very strong but perfectly understandable.

"It's supposed to burn. It's alcohol." He tried to get her arm again, just to receive a slap on his hand. McGee closed his eyes and counted until ten, breathing deeply to calm down. The boy giggled again, receiving a glare for it from the American.

"What's her name?"

"She is Makoto. I'm Itsuki." The boy answered, bowing politely in the traditional way.

"Hi Itsuki. I'm Timothy McGee." He then turned the old lady, saying very slowly, "Makoto, I need to clean your scratch or it will get infected. If it gets infected, you might lose a limb. You don't want to lose a limb, do you?"

He glanced at the boy, who slowly translated to his grandmother. The grandmother listed to the boy for a moment, before sighing loudly and stretching her arm for McGee, who smiled before applying the alcohol embedded cotton ball on her scratches. She hissed in pain and he stopped, waiting until she signaled that he could continue.

I walked slowly between the stranded survivors on the other side of the room, offering a small word of comfort or swabbing wounds and binding cuts. After a few minutes, I finally reach the lady from the car and the pregnant woman. Examining her face, I noticed that she was quite young, in her early twenties really. Her bruised arms were still wrapped around her huge middle, the movements of the child within were clearly visible against the soft cloth of her very thin dress. She was still crying brokenheartedly, her sobs shaking her completely and the older woman tried to console her but to no avail.

I sat down beside her and I could hear her broken words between her gasps, repeating in Japanese that we were all going to die.

_"Hey, all that crying can't be good for the baby."_

She lifted her face from the older woman's shoulder and glanced at me, saying between sobs. _"Can't... stop. We're... all going... to die. We're... all going... to die. We're... all going... to die. We're... all going... to die."_

_"No, we're not going to die."_

_"We're... all going... to die."_

"No, we're not." I said in English and I noticed that she blinked repeatedly, but there was understanding in her red eyes. "You understand English."

"Yes... I do."

"Good, then listen to me very carefully. We. Are. Not. Going. To. Die."

She hiccupped and cleaned her face, her tiny black eyes fixed in mine, but her sobs diminished a little as her gaze didn't waver from mine.

"How can you be so sure?" Another survivor, sitting on a chair a few feet to our left, asked in a loud voice, causing those around us to look at him. His lack of accent and strong jaw, coupled with his hazel eyes staring accusingly at me indicated that he was also American. "We're still feeling the aftershocks. There's no tap water and the toilets are not working. We only have some crackers to eat. How can you be so sure?"

"Because the odds are in our favor." I said, noticing that our conversation had caught the attention of the people sitting around us. "We are sheltered. Relatively dry and warm. There's no cold draft coming in and even though we might not have tap water we still have enough bottled water to last a couple of days if rationed wisely. We will fast or eat sparingly for a while, until the rescue teams are able to reach us, but they need time to do it."

I looked into another face, an old Chinese man in a business suit whose trousers were dirtied, his hands holding his now useless cell phone in his hands as if in prayer.

"The logistics are going to be our biggest enemy right now. As well as impatience. As we are not in immediate danger, we will not be in the top five priorities for evacuation. They will send the initial efforts to those in dire need. Those hurt or... dying. So right now, we have to keep calm and stay firm until they are able to send someone to pick us up."

"What if they don't send anyone? What if they don't know we're here?" Another woman asks, this one with a thick Japanese accent in her voice.

"They know."

"But how can you be so sure?" She insisted in a quivering voice.

"Right before the wave came, the sirens died and we could faintly hear helicopters flying over the airport. They know we're here."

"I remember that. They were flying very low over the building." Another person says to my left and I nod, before looking at the now calmer pregnant lady.

"Those were news helicopters. I'm quite sure they've filmed the wave hitting the coast and the airport. So they know we're here. They just have nowhere to land until the waters go down."

I grabbed a t-shirt from one of the suitcases we had opened after winter clothes and used it to wipe her face, cleaning the tear tracks on her young face.

"So no more talk about death or dying okay? You will live and so will your child."

The lady from the car smiled as she ran one of her hands over the pregnant woman's hair, before glancing at me, "Thanks for saving our lives. If it wasn't for you, I would have perished in the wave."

"You're welcome." I finish cleaning the young lady's face and start running a wet cloth on her arms, cleaning away the dirt from the scratches. "What's your name, sweetie?" I asked the pregnant girl, who sniffs and looked at me with tired eyes.

"Keiko."

"Beautiful name, Keiko. Have you decided on a name yet for him?"

She shuddered and rubbed a shaking hand over her tummy, the baby kicking energetically against her hand. "Her. It's a girl. And no. I'm waiting for my husband to come back. He will name her."

"Where is he, Keiko?" I finished the scratches on her left arm and started on her right arm.

"Working abroad."

I look at the first lady, "I'm Joy. What's your name?"

"I'm Hikari."

"Nice to meet you, Hikari. I need you to look after Keiko for me, okay? If she needs anything, anything at all, you will come looking for me, okay?"

"Okay."

I finished Keiko's right arm and rip a small part of another t-shirt, making an improvised band for Hikari's arm. "I don't think it's broken, but it's better if you keep it immobilized, okay."

"Thanks, Miss Joy."

I stood up to leave them but Keiko's hand on my arm stopped me, "Please, stay."

I glanced around and saw McGee struggling with the old lady, while the boy laughed wholeheartedly at the two arguing in different languages. I surmised he wouldn't miss me yet, so I sat down again, this time very close to the young woman on the floor, offering open arms for the young woman. She sobbed and dove into my arms and I could feel her shoulders shaking with fresh new tears when I rubbed her back.

"You are so strong, I'm weak. I can't stop crying." She muttered against my chest and I chuckled.

"Ah, you're wrong. I'm not strong. I'm as terrified as you are. But I've learnt not to be paralyzed by fear."

"How do you do that?"

I sighed and looked around, noticing that people were already settling down on improvised cots on the floor to wait for the next hours. Very few were standing, here and there the murmur of people was dying slowly to be substituted by whispered conversations.

"My dad is... a priest. A man of cloth back home. Since I was a little girl, he had taught me that nothing happens against God's will. He is in control of everything, even - or maybe especially - when we can't see how He is working in the situation. He knows everything and He will bring good things out of bad situations. We just have to wait and see."

"And do you believe in that?" Hikari asked, getting more comfortable on her improvised bed on the floor.

"I've lived through many difficult situations in my short existence and through them all I've learnt that... God sometimes calms the storm. Sometimes He calms the sailor. But sometimes, God makes us swim. He asks us to trust Him unconditionally and wait for the work of His hand."

"I can't see anything good coming out of this." Keiko muttered, her face against my chest as I slowly rubbed her back. I could feel her child moving within her against my breasts.

"You don't have to believe that. I'll believe for both of us."

I kissed her dark hair and started humming, as a melody filtered through my head as I remembered long summer days sitting on a beach chair on the backyard of our family home in Montana, while Johnny and his children played in front of me and Hope sat beside me in another chair, talking non stop trying to distract me from the physical pain of the bullet hole in my chest, dimmed only by emotional pain of having my team brutally murdered by my sick partner.

_"It was the day the world went wrong_  
_I screamed til my voice was gone_  
_And watched through the tears as everything_  
_came crashing down_

_Slowly panic turns to pain_  
_As we awake to what remains_  
_and sift through the ashes that are left_  
_behind_

I glanced towards Hikari and found her eyes fixed in my face, as I kept singing the song I remembered from Sunday services back in Glasgow from the darkest period of my entire life.

_"But buried deep beneath_  
_All our broken dreams_  
_we have this hope:_

_Out of these ashes... beauty will rise_  
_and we will dance among the ruins_  
_We will see Him with our own eyes_

_Out of these ashes... beauty will rise_  
_For we know, joy is coming in the morning..._  
_in the morning, beauty will rise"_

I felt Keiko shuddering in my arms and I hugged her tightly, before lifting my eyes and finding McGee looking at me from across the room.

_"So take another breath for now,_  
_and let the tears come washing down,_  
_and if you can't believe I will believe_  
_for you._

I kissed Keiko's head gently, before going to the next lines, singing it with closed eyes.

_"Cuz I have seen_  
_the signs of spring!_  
_Just watch and see:_

_Out of these ashes... beauty will rise_  
_and we will dance among the ruins_  
_We will see Him with our own eyes_  
_Out of these ashes... beauty will rise_  
_For we know, joy is coming in the morning..._  
_in the morning..._

_I can hear it in the distance_  
_and it's not too far away._  
_It's the music and the laughter_  
_of a wedding and a feast._  
_I can almost feel the hand of God_  
_reaching for my face_  
_to wipe the tears away, and say,_  
_"It's time to make everything new."_

_"Make it all new"_

_This is our hope._  
_This is the promise._  
_This is our hope._  
_This is the promise._  
_That it would take our breath away_  
_to see the beauty that's been made_  
_out of the ashes..._  
_out of the ashes..._

_That it would take our breath away_  
_to see the beauty that He's made_  
_out of the ashes..._  
_out of the ashes..._

_Out of these ashes... beauty will rise_  
_and we will dance among the ruins_  
_We will see Him with our own eyes_  
_Out of this darkness... new life will shine_  
_and we'll know the joy is coming in the morning..._  
_in the morning...beauty will rise!_

_Oh, Beauty will rise_  
_Oh, Beauty will rise_  
_Oh, oh, oh, Beauty will rise_  
_Oh, oh, oh, Beauty will rise_  
_Oh, oh, oh, Beauty will rise_


	20. 決定 – Decisions

**_決定 – Decisions_**

I sang a couple of other songs until I felt Keiko's breathing become calmer and she finally fell asleep in my arms. I rolled her gently onto her side and covered her with one of the jackets we stole from one of the many suitcases we had opened looking for warm clothing.

I checked Hikari before leaving both exhausted women asleep on the floor and started to walk towards McGee who was talking over some kind of plans with two men in security uniforms. It was already early evening and my stomach was already loudly complaining for lack of food, as our last full meal had been a light breakfast on Minako's house. We had skipped lunch in order to go directly to Nihara's house and now it was very unlikely we would have anything for dinner.

I smiled thinly at McGee who just waved at me, asking me to come closer. As soon as I was within reach, McGee took my arm and brought me close to him while his attention was still on what the officer was explaining to him. Apparently it was a detailed map of the electronic wires of the airport.

I tuned them out and closed my eyes, exhausted, laying my head against Tim's arm as he kept talking excitedly.

"Joy?"

"Uhm."

"Listen to this," I blinked my eyes open and forced myself to pay attention to him, "The airport is brand new; the whole structure was finished in 2005. So they were still installing some top of the line high speed transmission lines throughout the floors."

"I'm sorry but I have to be like Gibbs right now: So what?" I asked, seeing dancing white spots on the peripheral area of my eyes, a sure sign that a full blown migraine is on its way.

"The higher levels have been connected with fiber optics yet the main hub for wireless was flooded on the ground floor. If we can stretch a fiber optic cable from the first floor to the main internet control station down on the ground floor, we can have internet access on the computers up here without the need of wireless."

"Why didn't they use the fiber optics on the first place in the whole building?"

"Because Sendai Airport was supposed to be the first totally wireless airport of Japan. They installed the fiber optics in some important terminals, specifically the security control room and the main airlines check in booths, but the main access was all wireless and the fiber optic now connected here is not transmitting anything because they were doing a routine maintenance in their connections plugs. They were all disconnected for cleaning of the main office but as they had wireless throughout the building..."

"... it wasn't a problem because the systems were overlapping, ensuring the continuous access even if the cables were disconnected." Headache in full blown now, I massaged my eyes trying to dispel the pain.

"What's the plan?"

"The plan..." he turns to one of the officers who show us a detailed map of the lower floors, with the stairs and emergency exits marked with a red felt tip pen and the fire hydrants marked in blue. "We could stretch a long fiber optic from the first floor down to the main control room, connecting it to hub which we hope is still working even under water. Besides that, we would also plug the other optic cables in their respective places..." he marked with a pen the room on the ground floor where the security and internet access hub was, "thus ensuring that all computers connected with the optic cables can be used by the survivors here to communicate with their families."

"Where's the catch?"

"What catch?"

"There's always a catch. A but somewhere." I looked at his face and saw his enthusiasm wane a little.

"It has to be done manually. Someone has to go to the security room on the ground floor, manually start the systems and plug everything in."

I rolled my eyes at him and looked back to the survivors, all huddled together on the floor waiting for the time to pass. "The water has retreated but there are still five feet of freezing cold water on the ground level. Let's not forget the debris, stones and God knows what type of diseases one might catch from the piss infested water which now covers the land. Are you really willing to take a swim in that?"

McGee asked for a minute from the officers and grabbed my arm, guiding me a few feet away from the Japanese men who looked at us impassively.

"What was that? This is not the time to throw a tantrum." He said harshly once we were away from curious ears.

"McGee... Please Tim... I..." My voice was quivering as the horror of the last hours finally overwhelmed me and I started trembling in delayed shock.

"Ah Joy," He hugged me as I shivered in his arms, "I know you're afraid. I'm afraid too. But we have to find a way to communicate with someone outside and this is our best shot. If I can get the communications going, we can request help, give them information on the survivors and send a message home. We have to do this."

I sank my fingers into the flesh of his arms, my forehead resting on his chest as he breathed deeply on my neck.

"We have to do this." He softly repeated.

"Okay, but there will be conditions to be met." I told him, equally softly.

"Shoot."

I lifted my eyes to his face, "You will have to swim naked as I don't have any other dry clothes that will fit you. And I'm going with you."


	21. 調査  Search

**調査 - Search**

After a brief talk with Vance, Joseph asked Gibbs for a moment alone, so the team leader guided him to his usual conference room. Joseph only lifted his eyebrows when Gibbs hit the emergency brakes of the elevator and turned his full glare on the Buchanan Patriarch.

"Spill it." Gibbs was aware that there was something Joseph knew, but wasn't willing to say in front of the director.

"Didn't you say that we were going to your conference room?"

"This is my conference room."

"I was expecting something more like... a room."

"Stop beating around the bush. How are you so sure they are alive?"

Joseph studied Gibbs for a moment before getting his mobile phone from his pocket and showing it to Gibbs, "As soon as I finished speaking with you, I rang Jack here at the Pentagon."

"How could he possibly help find them?"

"After that nightmare in Nevada, you all signed non disclosure agreements with the SGC, but Jack reiterated his invitation for Joy to join the program. Timothy was particularly impressed with the possibility of a short visit to one of their offworld outposts so Colonel Sheppard suggested to them that they receive subcutaneous transmitters so whenever they are..." Joseph pointed on finger up, indicating the ceiling, "in orbit, all one of the ships has to do is beam them on board for a little trip."

"What are these subcutaneous transmitters? Can they be used to track them down?"

"Basically yes, but they also transmit basic information on vitals so the base is aware if the wearer is alive or just a corpse. After I spoke to Jack, he ordered the transmitters to be activated and he assured me that Tim's and Joy's transmitters indicated that they were alive and well, in the general vicinity of Sendai."

"Can't they simply beam them out of that place as you guys did when we were at Nellis?"

Joseph scratched his neck, feeling the hairs of his shaved beard growing again and itching on his skin before answering Gibbs.

"In theory, yes. In reality, no. You see, SGC base doesn't have transport technology, only the ships are equipped with it and... we have none in orbit right now. The closest one is a couple of weeks out. Even the transport ship you flew to Nevada is on a mission to the Alpha site. So, all we have right now are the biosigns which indicate they are alive and the beacon signal saying where they are in a couple of miles radius. We will have to pinpoint manually where they are in the map and for that we will have to speak to your lab scientist."

"Abby?" Gibbs thought about his forensic specialist, who had been brokenhearted since hearing about the earthquake and possible demise of their team mates.

"Yes, I can give you access to the satellite images recorded shortly before and a little after the earthquake and tsunami hit the Japanese coast, but they told me they can't sift through the images looking for only two people. It's too much data and they have a lot on their hands to do a search for two people. We will have to do it manually, studying thousands of images taken shortly before the tsunami hit in order to find the exact one that has them in it. That's why the info of where and when they were is so important, so we can at least have a starting point for our search."

Gibbs turned and hit the emergency brake, pressing urgently the button to go down to Abby's lab. "That was the first good news I had today."

Joseph smiled thinly at Gibbs who pressed again the button, just to have the door open before him. Gibbs marched in hurried steps towards the lab, with Joseph following him a few steps behind just to find the happy Goth not her usual happy self.

She was glaring at her computer stations; some kind of map was showing in the plasma and she was hitting her closed fists on the work counter repeatedly.

"Why are you not talking to me? I need you to talk to me! Timmy and Joy are in there I have to find their cell's signal. Why are you not working!"

"Abs," Gibbs said, just to be assaulted by a flying mass in red kilt and white shirt on his chest. He hugged her against his chest as she cried, her pale arms squeezing the life of him.

"Gibbs, my babies are not talking. I can't pinpoint their signal. There's some cell activity in the area where they are supposed to be, but none belongs to their phones. I can't find them, Gibbs!" She moaned, her teary face hidden on his neck.

Gibbs felt her fear for his agents, as he had shared the same terror when the real possibility crossed his mind earlier that day. But now, there's a small ray of hope and Abby needed to be on top of her game to be of some help.

"Abby, we might have a lead."

She sniffed and lifted her face from Gibbs' neck, finally noticing Joseph quietly standing a few feet back.

"How... Mr. Buchanan, you're here. Joy is..." She started crying again, this time running to give a tight hug on the other man, who held his ground when she hit his chest at full speed.

"They are fine, Abby," He said against her pigtails, just to feel her squeezing him tightly. "Abby, I need to breathe."

"Ah... sorry." She took a step back, releasing him and looking at him with kohl stained eyes at him. "How can you be so sure?"

Joseph glanced at Gibbs who gave him a silent nod, so Joseph slowly guided Abby back to her work stations and looked around the clean surface, "I need you to write your IP address and your main internet port gateway, so some people I know can forward you a link for a package of data."

"What for? Who are these people?" Abby started scribbling the info he had requested, her curiosity about the odd request spilling out in her glances at the two older men.

Joseph glanced at Gibbs who just shrugged, as it wasn't his secret to tell. "It's classified Abby, I can't tell you. But they are going to forward a bunch of data -mostly satellite pictures - and you will have to manually search through them for Joy and Tim."

Abby ripped a piece of her notepad and gave it to Joseph, who glanced at it briefly before starting to dial his cell phone.

"You have access to the sat images? Because I've been trying with several of my contacts and I was told that the images had been requested by the Government for research purposes, they were all forbidden to send any to me."

Joseph took a few steps back and started muttering on his phone, reading the numbers Abby just gave him. Abby stared at his back, looking confused at Gibbs.

"What's going on here, Gibbs? How does he have access to the images if I can't get them?"

Gibbs shook his head and glanced at her plasma screen that started flickering with another image.

"You really don't wanna know, Abs."

Abby's eyes followed Gibbs' and she became mad at what was happening.

"Oh, no no no." She ran to her keyboard and started typing furiously, "Oh, no. You're not hacking me!"

"Abby!" Joseph ran to her side and tried to stop her, just to have his hands slapped away.

"No, you don't understand. I'm being hacked!" She glared at him, but the oldest Buchanan just chuckled as he pointed at the several screens of the lab when the image flickered and finally the main logo of the Department of Defense appeared on all screens, making an open mouthed Abby look at them with huge surprised eyes.

A small window and a set of command lines along with a small link to a database appeared blinking on the screen.

"It's not hacking when you enter by the front door." Joseph kissed her cheek, taking a step back and looking at Gibbs, who just shook his head at the delighted smile appearing on his forensic scientist with this once of a life time experience of checking the DoD files.

"May I... take a look around?" She looked grinning at Gibbs and at Joseph, who chuckled and shook his head.

"Just download the images we will need to find McGee and Buchanan, Abs."

"They've granted you access as a guest. Do not overstep their boundaries or they will kick you out of their systems so fast that you won't even see it." Joseph said sternly, before leaving them both alone as he went towards the corridor.

Abby grinned and turned back to her computer, clicking on the link and shifting through the several satellite images gathered in different folders. She started downloading those she thought relevant.

"Do you think you can do it on your own? I could try to find help for you." Gibbs was worried it would be a herculean task for the Goth, but she simply dismissed him.

"No, let me work, Gibbs. Go... Go..." With Abby's total attention on the screen, Gibbs just kissed her cheek and left, just to stop when Abby said something had totally forgotten.

"Has anyone contacted Sarah?"

Gibbs glanced at Abby who paused, turned around and looked at him reproachfully.

"She deserves to know, Gibbs."

"I'll call her."

Saying that, he went to the corridor, just to find Joseph leaning against the wall of the corridor, his arms folded and his forehead deeply creased. He lifted worried eyes to Gibbs, studying the team leader for a moment before leaving the wall and going to the elevator doors, pressing the button so they could return the bullpen.

"What's on your mind, Joseph?" Gibbs asked softly, noticing the grimace on Joseph's face.

"Hope was going to collect Sarah from University this afternoon. Such news should be broken gently, personally, not by the phone." Joseph glanced at Gibbs. "Sarah has had enough traumas. She doesn't need to go through a nightmare like this alone."

"Thanks for remembering her." Gibbs said, just to receive a shrug from Joseph.

"She's family. Family sticks together." Joseph acted as he would speak something else but stopped. Gibbs noticed the reticence on the other man's actions and how he lowered his eyes to the floor, frowning again.

"What?" The doors of the elevator hissed open and Gibbs entered the car, one of his feet blocking the doors so the other man could also enter.

"They are trying, Gibbs. They are trying very hard to contact us."

"Is that something your father's gut telling you?" Gibbs smirked, mentioning the conversation they had shared a few minutes before with Vance on the bullpen.

He was surprised when Joseph shook his head.

"No, just common sense. Can you really imagine Timothy calmly accepting being without Internet access or without a working phone around? He would be ripping his hair out trying to figure out a way how to go online to contact us."

Gibbs grinned and pressed the button for the bullpen.

The doors hissed closed.


	22. 水泳  Swim

_**水泳 - Swim**_

Mr. Osaka and two other security officers went in search of spare fiber optic cables while McGee checked several computer stations which would be used by the survivors once the Internet connection was reestablished. He requested to have one separated for our use, the one installed in the VIP area of JAL Airlines. It had flat screens and a camera, as well as Skype installed in the desktop.

While he worked with the security, I asked for Itsuki's help. The boy helped me make a small bed of warm clothes and blankets just a few meters away from the fire stairs Tim would use to access the lower floor. He also somehow found a long rope and brought it to me, as well as some socks and a ninja hood, which made me look at him with surprise.

"Do I even wanna know where you found this?"

He just giggled and ran toward the main mezzanine to run another errand for me.

We chose as access point the far end of the terminal, by one of the fire stairs which would end just a couple of feet away from the door of the main Internet security office on the ground floor. McGee brought the cables and glanced at the piles of clothing, ropes, towels, bar soup and other things I had gathered while he had been checking the computer stations.

He glanced worriedly at the fire hose I was slowly uncoiling.

"What's that for?"

"To wash you better after I fish you out of the filthy water down there."

"Do we have water for that?"

"The emergency reservatory somehow hasn't been contaminated. I checked the water and it seems to be clean."

He uncoiled his own fiber optics cable and went to work, frowning at me. "That's going to be cold, isn't it?."

"Freezing cold."

"You are enjoying the chance of torturing me, aren't you, woman?" He asked mockingly, a hint of a smile on his face for the first time since this nightmare began.

I just smiled and kept quiet, seeing his struggle with the wires coming from the walls.

"Do you need any help?"

"Yeah, can you check the other side, if the cable is visible out of the tube in there?" He pointed the room where we would install a small hub and connect to the existing wiring, thus connecting all the computers of the higher floors.

We worked in silence for a few minutes until all the physical network was exactly as McGee wanted. The sun had set a long time ago and by the complaints of our stomachs, it was very late in the evening. We only had the faint light of our lanterns and some aromatic candles I had stolen from the small gift shop on the next floor.

In the half light, we finished most of the cable connections and brought the rest of the cable towards the fire door, which we kept open with an old shoe stuck under it.

We looked around, seeing that the preparation phase was all over. We had requested a bit of privacy for the security officers, so they were going to be on stand by on the next floor until we informed them that we needed help through the short range radios they had given us. We stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down to the lower level which lead to the flooded level.

McGee would go first, a rope tied to his waist, carrying the coiled cables on one of his shoulders.

I would stay back, ensuring that he had enough optic cable and rope until he reached his target, a couple of feet away from the door on the next level.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, looking at the muddy water several feet below us.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Nope." I grinned at him, "Lose the clothes."

He rolled his eyes at me but obeyed. He had lost his jacket some time during the afternoon, so he took his shirt, leaving only the white undershirt beneath. He gave it to me so I carefully folded it to keep it with the clean clothes outside in the corridor while he started unbuckling his belt and took his trousers off. I waited until he gave me them too and left him alone for a moment.

When I came back, he was in just his socks and boxers, his arms folded over his chest which was covered with goosebumps.

"Can I keep the boxers? I really don't like the idea of going... ahh.."

I took the undershirt from his hand and looked him up and down, noticing that he shivered, but not from cold. "Sure, I would never put in jeopardy the family jewels."

"Ha, very funny."

I gave him a very thick pair of winter socks Itsuki had found for me in one of the shops upstairs.

"Put these on. I don't want you to cut your feet in anything down there. We don't know what types of diseases these waters may carry and we can't afford you getting sick right now."

While he put the socks on, I started tying the nylon rope around his waist, noticing a bruise here and there from our desperate escape from the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.

I touched a particularly bad one, all purple on his side, making him hiss and catch my hand in his, moving it away.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, my eyes filling with tears as the reality of the situation hit me anew.

"No need to apologize," he said equally softly, his fingers softly caressing my hand in his. I had always admired his pianist hands, which were now blistered and cut in some places, from fighting with the rubble at Makoto's house and working on the wiring of the airport for hours. He noticed my down face and hugged me against his naked chest, making me mold my body against him, his chin reaching exactly the top of my head.

"We have to do this. Everything will be all right."

"I know. Just because it's the right thing to do it doesn't make it any easier to have it done, does it?" I rubbed my cheek against his chest, just to feel his arms squeezing me against him.

"No."

We separated and after a moment looking at each other, we went back to work.

We brought the cables and the rope down some steps, until we were on the brink of the water. He looked at my face, seeing my acceptance and stepped into it, carrying the cables in his arms.

I slowly gave him more rope and he started the slow trek towards the security room on the ground floor.


	23. 冷たい Cold

_**冷たい - Cold**_

McGee hissed as he slowly submerged himself on the freezing waters covering the ground floor. He was pleasantly surprised, however, when the water reached only his waist, not his chest as we had foreseen before.

Thankfully, the waters were retreating, not as fast as we expected, but at least the shortwave radio, the small bag with tools and the flashlight hanging from McGee's neck wouldn't get wet as we had feared. He also had some swimming goggles that Itsuki had found for me in the gift shop.

"Come in, Tim, do you copy?" My voice came out distorted from his radio and he had to stop to grab the radio from its string hanging from his neck.

"Roger that."

"Can you see the security room?"

"Not yet." He looked around, his flashlight illuminating the waters in front of him. "Can't see much anyway."

He let go the radio and used his hand to push a floating piece of wood in front of himself. Each step was carefully taken, as there was no way he could see what was beneath his sock clad feet. He made a sweep with his flashlight and saw a blown out door a couple of feet to his right. He took some steps towards it, feeling the weight of the tools and the cable coiled over his shoulder. His flashlight illuminated a corner of the room and McGee silently cheered when he saw several electronic panels.

He grabbed the radio. "I've found it. I'm heading in." He pulled the rope tied on his waist and I gave him more slack so he could slowly advance towards the security room.

I sat on the floor at the top of the stairs and checked the length of the rope, giving him more and more of it. I took the radio and checked on him again.

"Tim, are you okay?"

It took a while for him to answer, so I gave a tug on the rope and felt resistance. "Tim?"

"I'm here." He said, already inside the room. The tables and chairs had been carried away by the force of the waters, damaging some of the screens of the plasma TVs used for surveillance of the airport.

He turned around and saw a blue cloth floating on the water. He moved his flashlight and found the knob and tube splice leading to the optic fiber hub he had to redo the connections. He took two steps and touched the blue cloth, feeling it move beneath his fingers. He pushed it aside and shrieked when he found a bloated face staring back at him.

Apparently, the security officer didn't have time to run out of the room and had drowned in his own watery tomb.

"Tim, what happened?"

I was ready to jump in the waters and follow the rope when he responded.

"Ah... I think I've just found the security guard on duty today."

"Ah... Dead?"

"Very dead. Rotten really."

"..."

He pushed the decomposing body out of the room and came back inside, looking for a place to hang his tool bag so he could work on the small internet hub. He found a cupboard which hadn't been moved by the force of the waters and used one of its open doors to hang the tool bag.

He uncoiled the fiber optic cable and lowered the water goggles, getting ready to dive in the murky waters. Finally he contacted me on the radio.

"Joy, I'm going under. I'll check the structure of the hub and plug in the cables. Talk to you in five."

"Okay, take care." He then took the radio string from his neck and put the radio on his tool bag. After a brief check on the goggles and a deep breath, he was under.  
He swam down with the flashlight in his hand, following the cables all the way to the small hub box. Thankfully, the other cables were all there, floating in the water out of the wiring tube coming out of the wall. He slowly connected each one of them, before plugging the other optic cable he had brought from upstairs, just in case the ones he had just connected were not working.

As they were all plastic casings, hopefully they would work even under water. After checking everything was duly connected, he emerged out of the water and with huge gasps, ran shaking hands over his dirtied goggles. His teeth were chattering as the water was very cold, filled with detritus which gave it a dirty muddy look.

He gave a tug on the rope tied at his waist, before coming back to the radio to speak to me.

"Joy, it's all connected. Tell them to check if we're back on line."

"Okay." I then changed languages and contacted the security guards in Japanese, telling them to verify the computers two floors up if they were working.

After a few seconds, my answer was not very comforting.

"Negative. It entered the network but no data is being transmitted."

McGee stayed in silence for a moment and I clearly imagined him cursing very colorfully just at the thought of having to dive again.

"The network is okay, right?"

"Yep. The two computers icon appeared indicating that the computer is connected to the network, but no small blue globe showed up."

"It must be something in the network then."

"Can you fix it?"

"I would have to access the computers in here and..."

"They are all underwater."

"Yep."

"Oh, crap."

McGee shivered, looking at the broken screen of the computer floating just a few feet to his left. "Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Hang on, I had an idea."

"Tim, what idea?"

Only silence greeted me. For good five minutes I worried and fought the extreme urge of biting my nails. My continuous radio calls came unanswered and I was already having visions of Tim's body dead and floating in dirty water, so I started to take my own clothes off in order to follow the rope to where he was.

"Tim?"

"McGee, where are you?"

"Oh, God. Tim?"

"Baby, please, respond."

"TIM!"

"I can't believe it!" Came his surprised voice and I breathed alleviated.

"What the... Please, what were you doing? I almost died here!"

"The computers are on, just the screens are broken." His excitement could be heard through the transmission.

"What do you mean?"

"The screens are top of the line but the casings were too big for normal setups. I went under and I can't believe it!" He started laughing, his voice quivering with cold. "The stations here are watercooled. They are all waterproof. All I have to do is find a working monitor and I'm in."

"I don't understand. Are you saying that, even though the computers are under water they are still on?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. You see, there are two types," I hear the sound of something falling in the water. "Sorry, that was one monitor. Anyway, there are two types of cooling systems for computers. Venting systems and water/oil based systems. Venting systems are more common and cheaper, but for high performance or gaming only computers, they are rigged to be cooled with water or oil."

"And the computers in there..."

"...Are all water cooled. That's beyond awesome. Now if I just attach this..." Some noise of water and he comes back on the radio. "Joy, honey, gotta go. Talk to you later."

The radio silence that followed was the longest ten minutes of my life. I sat down on my underwear, hugging myself and holding the rope that was my only connection to Tim a few yards below. I knew he was alive as after every 60 seconds I would pull the rope once and he would pull twice, just to tell me he was okay.

But still no radio contact. I supported my chin on my hands and glared at the muddy water a few feet below, sitting on the top of the stairs and praying all the time he was down there, alone, in the dark and I was up here, alone and just holding a radio in one hand and the rope and the flashlight in the other.

"Oh, God. Please. Please. Please. Don't let anything happen to him. Oh, God. Please."

I shivered in fear as a cold feeling crawled up my spine, so when the radio crackled I answered in a rush.

"Tim, are you okay?"

Unfortunately, it wasn't him but Mr. Osaka informing that the computers were all online and transmitting data on the upper floor. Whatever Tim had done down there, it had worked.

"Tim, answer me."

"Tim, where are you?"

I tugged the rope and felt resistance, but no tug back.

"Tim, if you don't answer me I'm going after you and Lord help me if …"

Finally I felt some slack on the rope, so I started coiling it more and more.

"Tim?"

More slack, so I started to pull it faster.

"Tim, where are you?"

Finally, tired of getting no response, I threw the radio aside and pulled the rope very fast, feeling a little resistance but more and more slack.

Finally, I saw the pale figure of Tim, very white and shivering, at the bottom of the stairs. I ran towards him and resisted the urge of jumping into his arms, as he was covered with dirty water and mud all over, his hair plastered to his head.

There were dark circles around his eyes and his lips were almost blue, thanks to the cold. I finally ignored my own queasiness and grabbed him by his arms and dragged him the last steps up, while he coughed and gagged.

"I... I..."

"You did it. You did it good."

His teeth were chattering, "Did... I..."

"Yes, you did." I sat him on the last steps of the stairs and ran out towards the corridor, grabbed the bottle of shampoo, bar of soap and the hose and carried them to where he was. I dropped everything on the floor and ran back out and almost slid past the water switch that the hose was connected to. With shaking hands I put pressure on the switch, groaning at the force I had to use to finally open it.

Once the water started to flow, I ran back to where he was, grabbed the hose and started to carefully wash him. He coughed and sputtered at the water, but at least it was cleaner than the filth he had been swimming. I got the bar soup and started to rub it on him. I washed every curve, every nook of his skin before feeling satisfied.

He simply stayed on the floor shivering in a fetal position while I did it. I took his socks and his boxers off, which were both useless by now and threw them down the stairs. Once I was satisfied with his cleanliness I ran out to the corridor again, closing the water register.

I ran back to where he was laying on the floor shivering and grabbed him by his shoulders and half carried and dragged him to the bed made out of blankets and jackets I had made previous to his little swim and dropped him right in the middle of it.

"I... cold."

"I know."

By that time, I was also shivering and shaking as I rubbed cold hands over his arms. I covered him with blankets but he kept shivering. I took the ninja hood Itsuki had given me earlier and covered his head, neck and ears. I ran to the pile of clothes and picked new socks and ran to him again, unrolling thick woolen socks over his prune like feet, after checking to see if there was any cut or bruise on them.

Finding none, I covered his feet and finally lifted the blankets and lay beside him, covering his body with mine.

"Wohhh.. ahh..." He looked at me confused as I took my bra and panties and threw both away, lying naked over his cold chest and rubbing his arms at the same time I stuck my leg between his cold ones. "I... really... I'm really not up to it."

I laid my head against his chest and rubbed his arms again.

"I know."

"Why then?"

"I'm going to transfer my body heat to yours." I rubbed his arms vigorously, and then brought one of his cold hands between my legs, trapping it between them.

"Oh..."

"If the cold blood from your extremities goes too fast to your heart, it might fail and you could die. So, the safest way to warm you up is through body contact." I flipped him onto his side, wrapping another blanket over his back and my arms around his neck.

"Are you getting warmer?"

He nuzzled my chest, his face finally resting over the scar on my left breast.

"Oh yeah."

The radio buzzed so I had to stretch my arm to the left, grabbing the radio as rapid Japanese came out of it. I carefully assured Osaka that we were fine, and that we would stay right where we were until Tim felt better... or warmer than before. I finally dropped the radio and turned to him again, feeling him bringing me closer to him and gluing himself to my side.

"Uhm..."

"Comfortable now?"

"Very," his voice came muffed against my neck, as he ran now warmer fingers against my sides.

"Would you sing to me?" He muttered, his eyes closed as he nuzzled my neck and hair.

I laid on my back and dragged him with me.

"Anything?"

"I liked your singing for the lady upstairs earlier tonight."

I took the ninja hood from his head and ran my head over his now warm and dry hair. I felt his breathing becoming calmer as I sang softly.

_This is my prayer in the desert_  
_And all that's within me feels dry_  
_This is my prayer in the hunger in me_  
_My God is a God who provides_

_And this is my prayer in the fire_  
_In weakness or trial or pain_  
_There is a faith proved_  
_Of more worth than gold_  
_So refine me Lord through the flames_

_And I will bring praise_  
_I will bring praise_  
_No weapon forged against me shall remain_

_I will rejoice_  
_I will declare_  
_God is my victory and He is here_

I kept singing softly until I felt him sighing and falling asleep slowly.

My exhaustion finally caught up with me and I also fell asleep with Tim in my arms.


	24. 生れ – Birth

_**生れ – Birth**_

I was having a very nice dream where warm hands and lips glided over my skin with familiarity, just hitting the right spots to make me moan. Beautiful butterflies lightly landed on my skin and suddenly started chattering in Japanese.

Wait a minute. Japanese?

I struggled to open my eyes and found McGee's unshaved face hovering a few inches over mine, his whole body covering me as a second skin as we laid in a unorganized mess of blankets and jackets.

However his attention wasn't on me, but on whoever he was talking to. I moved a little and he gave me a little breathing space, being careful of giving me the edge of the blanket so I wouldn't give a free show to his interlocutor.

I moved my head and I was not surprised to find Mr. Osaka, chief of security.

"So everyone has been able to use their e-mails." Tim said in a voice laded with sleep.

"Yes, thanks to you Timothy-San. We informed the Japanese authorities, they've said evacuation will happen by the end of today. Maybe tomorrow. Many helicopters flying now over airport. News helicopters. We appear on TV."

"Any information on how bad the catastrophe was? An estimated number of victims?

"TV says two hundred. Maybe three hundred. But I believe more." Osaka shook his head, saddened by the news.

"Why?" I croaked, my voice almost a whisper after the night we had.

He ran a trembling hand over his thinning hairline, "Spent night awake, by the top of the building. Trying to see if waters recede. I alone counted two hundred bodies floating on water. So I believe many more."

McGee and I sighed loudly and exchanged a glance which clearly showed our suspicion that the numbers would increase a lot and very fast in the next few hours.

"Are the cell phones working now?"

"Some of them. Depends on the operator. We arranged charging stations for the cellphones so people can call home."

"Good." McGee rubbed a trembling hand over his face, trying to dispel his sleepiness at the same time hurried steps ran towards us.

A young voice screeched in Japanese in desperation, sliding to a halt right beside Osaka and grabbing his arm and shaking it, at the same time he pointed to the corridor he just came.

It was Itsuki.

"What?" I muttered trying to follow the very fast Japanese speech.

"What is he saying?" McGee glances at me but I can't answer him right now, as I was trying to understand.

Itsuki turned to us and gasped, his hand going to cover his eyes.

"Oh, you're busy naked."

"No we're not..." McGee looked down at me and grinned. "Well, we're naked, but not busy. We were asleep. What happened, Itsuki?"

"Baby is coming. Woman is screaming. Makoto told me to come find you. Lots of blood and screaming! Hurry Hurry!"

"Baby? What baby?" McGee was still confused, so I pushed him away and started looking around for my clothes.

"We'll be there in five minutes, Itsuki." With that info, he looked at me between his opened fingers, grinned and ran away as fast as a comet to inform his nana.

I knelt on our small nest with a thick winter jacket over the front of my body, covering all important parts before talking to Osaka.

"Please inform them we will be there in five minutes. We need a little privacy to put our clothes on."

He bowed respectfully and left, while McGee still looked at me confused, his mind not yet following what was happening.

"What baby, Joy?"

I dropped the jacket and started putting my clothes on, without bothering on trying to find any underwear.

"Remember the pregnant lady we helped out of the rubble? Her name is Keiko. According to Itsuki, there's something wrong with her."

I threw his pants towards him, along with some boxers I found … I don't remember where I found them, but at least they were clean. He caught them both against his naked chest.

"Is she in labor? Now?"

"I don't know. But that can't be good as she is very young and very scared."

"Do we have any medicines to help?" He stood up and started to put his clothes on in hurry at the same time I put on a T-shirt and a blue turtleneck sweater. I dug around our nest and found a more or less clean one in the right size and threw it to McGee, who put it over his t-shirt.

"I don't know. We have to check how bad she is. Let's go."

We finished putting our clothes on in a hurry and as soon as our shoes were on we ran towards the mezzanine where the others survivors were gathered. It was easy to find Itsuki and Makoto, as all we needed to do was follow the hysterical cries of pain which were echoing in the big hall.

A circle of people were around Keiko, so Mr. Osaka helped to open a small way so we could reach her, as she was sitting on the floor, her back supported by Hikari as the older woman glided her hand over her arms, trying to calm her down.

It wasn't working, as Keiko would throw her head back and scream in pain with the next contraction and Makoto was softly touching her distended belly, which became taut periodically.

Makoto was speaking to Keiko, who sobbed and cried, terrified. A new wave of pain came over and she kicked her legs in desperation, hitting another woman who was kneeling beside her and throwing her a few feet away.

"Ouch," McGee said, looking at her paralyzed and impotent, not sure what to do to help her.

I turned to Itsuki, my middleman for everything.

"Itsuki, I need towels, t-shirts, any type of cloth you might find that is still clean and I need it now."

The boy threw a glance to the crying and squirming lady before running to complete his task.

I turned to McGee, who finally put his brilliant mind into gear, "We need a room with some privacy." He approached Osaka, "Do you have any room where we can take her?"

After some time considering his options, Osaka pointed to a dark corner of the hall, "Priority boarding of Qantas airline. Closest one with good sofas."

"Good enough." McGee knelt beside Keiko, who was tightly gripping Hikari's hand and tried to talk to her. "Hey, Keiko, remember me?"

Her only answer was a grunt, as she stared at his face during a contraction.

"We're taking you to a more private place, okay?"

"Can't... walk... arrrgggggghhhh."

"No need, I'll carry you." He put an arm under her legs and another supporting her back and soon had her in his arms. She groaned and hid her face against his neck, trying not to scream with the pain she was feeling.

I turned to Makoto, who stood up and nodded at me, agreeing with our decision.

"We need water and gloves. And anything else you think we might need." I told her in Japanese, and the old lady, as a good and efficient general, started barking orders to the women in a small circle around us.

Osaka guided McGee, Hikari and me towards the Business priority boarding of Qantas, illuminating the way with his flashlight. I used mine to check the place, finding a good sized sofa on a corner to the back supported against the wall.

"What about that one?"

McGee saw the big sofa I had illuminated and carried his precious burden there, gently depositing her on the cushions right when another contraction hit Keiko, making her bite his arm trying to curb her screams.

He grimaced and looked at me in pain, but there was really nothing we could do as she was barely cognizant of her surroundings during the height of the pain wave.

She let go and started gasping and crying, her fingers squeezing McGee's hand with an astonishing strength.

"Okay, I think I need my hand back," He said grimacing, but the young woman didn't let go.

"Why don't you sit behind her, supporting her back against your chest?" Hikari suggested, looking at them with a small smile.

"Me? Why?"

"You're the man in the room, Tim, so you can hold her upper body still as we check her down here. Unless..." I grinned at him, sitting at Keiko's feet "you prefer stay on this side to catch the baby when she comes out."

He stared at me with huge surprised eyes and, after a moment for consideration, said without hesitation from his part. "I'll sit on this side, thanks." He took position behind Keiko and wrapped his arms under her breasts, one of his hands resting over the contracting bulge.

Mr. Osaka and Itsuki arrived carrying linens, t-shirts and blankets. Other security guards brought buckets filled with water and Makoto brought a bundle of other things.

She washed her arms and hands in one bucket and urged us to do the same. While we did that, Makoto sat on a small stool in between Keiko's legs and lifted her skirts, her old hands crawling up to check her dilation.

All the time she kept talking with Itsuki, who ran from one side to the other to give this or that to his grandmother.

Keiko tried to twist out of McGee's arms but he held her firm, urging her to breathe deeply. She screamed instead, making Itsuki look at her scared.

Makoto ordered me and Hikari around, until each one of us were holding one of the thrashing legs of Keiko while McGee held her securely in his arms.

That torment lasted hours, with Itsuki running outside the room to bring us something or maybe a new bucket of water. Osaka came checking on us frequently, but there wasn't much he could do so he would leave as soon Keiko started screaming again.

After god knows how many hours of us around Keiko, she started losing strength.

"She is dilated enough. Next contraction, you need to push," said Makoto to Keiko in Japanese, who sighed in McGee's arms, crying quietly.

"I can't. I can't. I'm gonna die..."

"Don't say I can't. You survived earthquake. You survived tsunami. You will survive this too. Women give birth since beginning of time. You will do this."

"No... I can't."

"Don't worry, you will have this child. But you have to push." I told her in English, just to see her looking at me defeated.

"I'm tired."

McGee gently cleaned her forehead with a piece of cloth before looking at me.

"Keiko, you have to push. Your little girl just needs a little push, okay?" He said against her ear, feeling her shaking in his arms.

She became tense again, preparing herself for the next contraction.

"This is it, now you push, Keiko. Push!" He shouted, holding her by her shoulders as she squirmed.

Keiko started screaming again as she was torn by pain, while Makoto ordered me and Hikari to hold Keiko's legs folded against her bulging belly, so she could catch the baby.

"I can see the head." Makoto said, bringing a trembling smile to my face.

I lifted my eyes and found McGee's gaze fixed on my face, as he whispered to Keiko to hold on and push and breathe. His eyes never wavered from mine and I could see they were filled with tears.

"Keiko push!"

Keiko screamed again, as if she was torn apart, her leg quivering and trying to kick us away but we held firm.

"Push, Keiko." Makoto shouted at her.

Keiko screamed again, but this time a red bloodied bundle slipped into Makoto's waiting arms. Itsuki ran towards his grandma with a clean tshirt, which she immediately wrapped the tiny child.

We let go of Keiko's legs and were surprised when she moaned again, bringing us in alert.

"Isn't it over yet?" McGee asked, worried at the shaking woman in his arms.

A bloodied glob came out and long forgotten first aid training came to mind. "No, that's just the afterbirth. Her body is just getting rid of what it doesn't need anymore."

I leaned and started to massage her now empty belly, helping it to contract to its normal size, as she sobbed with outstretched arms, begging for her baby.

Makoto examined the child, cut the umbilical cord and cleaned it with fresh water, wrapping it in another t-shirt before bringing the crying infant to the exhausted mother.

Hikari and I stood up and just watched as Makoto gently deposited the newborn in her mother's arms and we looked at each other with a sense of finished duty.

"My baby." Keiko said, a peaceful smile gracing her face.

McGee looked over her shoulder to the child. "She's so tiny," he muttered, his voice shaking with unspoken emotion.

"Congratulations, Keiko, you have a daughter." I said.


	25. 子供  Child

_**子供 - Child**_

We left mother and child alone, after cleaning everything and ensuring that Hikari would stay with them just in case they needed something. While Keiko breastfed her baby, we left the priority boarding room dragging all the blood splattered towels and clothes to be thrown away.

Keiko's labor lasted eleven hours and it was already mid afternoon of the next day when we left them alone for a while.

Our exhaustion and hunger finally made an appearance, so Mr. Osaka took us to a corner of the Mezzanine where they had improvised a small kitchen where people were making soup with the few ingredients that were available on the food court.

We gladly received a small bowl with soy soup and sipped it quietly, seeing the people sitting on the floor or on the chairs, waiting for the rescue teams to come.

Our silence was comfortable; as we both were speechless before the small miracle we had the pleasure to be present.

"That was... wow." McGee said, glancing at me with a small smile, before lowering his eyes to the soup, curious about its ingredients but not complaining. At least it was warm.

"Yeah." I sipped my soup, closing my eyes as the scalding liquid ran down my throat and warmed me up from inside out.

"Better than sex."

"Better than sex?"

"In a non... physical way. The emotions in it... yeah. I think." He shivered as he remembered the last hours. "For a moment out there, I really thought she was going to die. I don't know I..." He choked up, remembering the desperate cries echoing during long hours.

"Birth is a painful process. But everything is forgotten once the mother finally holds the child in her arms." I said, looking at him placidly.

He lifted his eyes and looked at me, showing all his love in just a glance. I felt my throat closing with tears and somehow he felt my despair as he left his soup aside and went to me, hugging me tight as I hiccupped, trying to keep my tears at bay.

"Oh, Joy." He rubbed his big hands over my back, feeling my distress. "It's okay. I know."

"I just wish I could give you that, Tim." I whisper against his neck.

"I know. But it's not meant to be. What I have is more than enough. More than I've ever dreamed." He whispered against hair, as I rubbed my cheek against his. I smiled as I felt his short stubble prickling my skin.

I leaned back and ran trembling hands over his chin, tracing its lines with my finger. I looked up and see his green gaze fixed on mine, filled with love and understanding.

"I like the rugged look." I whispered and as I had imagined, it brought a small smile to his face.

"You do? I don't think Boss would let me keep it though." His eyes became mischievous.

"It's something to consider for our next holidays." He chuckled lightly, studying my face and seeing that I'm okay again.

"Tony would never let me live this down if I appeared at the bullpen with my unshaved face." He became serious as he remembered something, "We have to call Gibbs."

After the hellish day, night and day again we had, we had forgotten that all our efforts the night before had been for the reconnection of the internet so we could contact DC.

He stood up and went back to his chair, collecting his bowl of soup and sipping it.

"Finish eating, we'll try to contact them as soon as we wash up." He said.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

We took our time to finish eating, before going to one of the bathrooms with a bucket filled with water. We tried to clean up as well as possible, taking the blood and sweat of the last hours from our skin. We dressed up again on the same clothes and, after a short talk with Osaka, we went to the Priority Boarding hall for JAL, which we had separated for our use.

McGee immediately went to the computer station, checking the internet connection and giving a small shout of cheer when we were online.

He immediately ran a diagnostics program on it and started typing, so I simply sat behind him and leaned my head over my folded arms, feeling my eyes gritty and slowly closing with exhaustion.

Only the noise of his typing filled the room, so I might have dozed for a little while until he woke me up with a hand on my shoulder.

"I think I did it."

"Umm?" I blinked and noticed that the sun was already setting - again - in our refuge and no sign of evacuation forces yet.

"I've sent e-mails for everyone, pinged Abby's computer and left a message on her desktop, as well as forwarded SMS messages for their cell phones."

"How will we know that they've read your message?"

"I've created a Skype account and forwarded the name of it to them. Hopefully, once one sees it he or she will tell the others and connect it. So they will try to call us."

"Good, now come here." I grabbed his arm and slowly guided him to one of the sofas of the room. I had locked the door once we entered, so I was sure we were going to have privacy for at least a couple of hours.

"What's on your mind?" He asked as I sat down on the sofa, checking its cushions.

"I was having a really interesting dream when Itsuki and Osaka woke us up."

He blushed and smiled, looking at me with shining eyes. "Really?"

"Yep."

"Oh..."

"It started like this..."

We snuggled on the sofa for a couple of minutes, falling asleep shortly afterwards when exhaustion and stress took over, so we didn't hear when the computer started pinging desperately the incoming Skype call from DC one hour later.


	26. 話 – Talk

**_話 – Talk_**

"GIIIBBBSSSS!" Abby's shout echoed through the bullpen as she ran from the elevator towards his desk a couple of hours after Joseph had granted her access to the DoD files on the tsunami images.

"Did you find them?"

"I've found them on the pictures!" She said, excited.

Gibbs, Tony, Ziva and Joseph - who had been lingering in the bullpen at McGee's desk - stood up immediately before those news.

"Where are they, Abby?" Tony asked, elated that they might have a clue of where they were.

"I actually don't know where they were right now. I haven't finished yet processing the sat pictures but I have a pretty good idea of where they've been."

"Show us." Gibbs ordered.

Abby herded everybody to her lab, where the plasma had a huge picture of a parking lot of Sendai train station. She immediately went to her station and started typing.

"We know the exact schedule of the bullet train towards Sendai coming from Tokyo, so we know that this train..." She points to an incoming train on the station. "... brought Timothy and Joy to Sendai. With a rough math, we would guess that they took a couple of minutes to leave the station and …"

She typed again, and then another aerial shot appeared, this time showing Tim and Joy walking out of the station going to the parking area where the rentals were.

"There they are." Gibbs approached the plasma, seeing his two agents walking to their rental.

"Do you have more pictures of them?" Tony asked, finally becoming enthusiastic about it.

"I have a bunch of pictures of them." Abby typed something and another picture appeared; now showing them entering a Toyota utilitarian.

"Strange choice of car," Tony commented, just to receive a glance from Ziva.

"They are in Japan. They don't rent Porsches at train stations." Ziva added, just to receive a glare from Gibbs who turned to Abby.

"Do you have more pictures of them?"

"I have loads of pictures of them." She returns to her keyboard. "I actually was able to reconstruct their itinerary from the moment they've left the station all the way to their first stop."

"Load it up."

For the next half an hour, they watched a slow slideshow of both agents traveling through the narrow streets of Sendai, until they stopped in a small cluster of houses very close to the sea.

"Where are they going?"

Ziva asked and they watch the two agents leaving their car and walking to the last house in the lane. The next two pictures didn't show any sign of them, until they appeared again running after two men on motorcycles.

"Who are they?" Joseph frowned at the pictures, but Gibbs just shook his head.

"My money is those are the men Tezeri sent after his sister." Tony added, remembering the Yakusa soldiers charged to retrieve Tezeri's sister from her hiding place in Sendai.

Abby searched the next of batch of sat pictures, "here is when the things get tense."

"Why?"

"Check this out."

She loaded the next slide show and it showed their Toyota Previa leaving the small neighborhood and driving after the two green motorcycles.

"Do you have a wider angle?"

"Sure."

Abby clicked and they could have an idea of how far they were from the bikes they were pursuing.

"There's no way they can reach them. They have much faster motorcycles." Ziva mentioned, watching the distance between they growing bigger at each picture.

Abby paused as a new picture appeared, turning to look at the horrified eyes of the agents watching the slide show.

"From here on, all the pictures will be from the earthquake." Gibbs approached Abby's side, who showed a blown up image of the agents car almost losing control in the highway as well as several accidents happening around them.

"Oh, my God." Joseph muttered, looking horrified as the next picture appeared, showing cars exploding around them, crashing in trees and the road moving beneath their car.

The next picture their car apparently had stopped, but there was a crack on the concrete going towards their car.

"Please tell me that they got out of the car in time." Ziva muttered, staring horrified at the pictures as the next one appeared, showing Tim dragging Joy away from their car which hung over a crack.

The next picture showed then running towards the field and then lying on it, as the destruction around them increased.

It stopped briefly on them both lying horrified as the houses in the edge of image fell apart.

"So they were alive when the earthquake hit. Do you have more images?" Gibbs asked, just to see the image changing on the screen again showing them going back to the road and Tim running to one of the cars which had crashed, leaving Joy out of sight under a tree.

However, the next pictures showed Joy right beside Tim, one hand firmly grasping his arm as he looked down at her as she spoke to him. The next she pointed to the tree line and the ocean.

"That's it." Joseph said.

"What?" Gibbs asked him, without taking his eyes from the screen, where both Tim and Joy turn to the ocean in the picture.

"She realized the danger they're in and she is telling him that. Check it out."

Next picture showed Tim carrying a woman back to his car and the one after that, both were in the car, moving down the highway and out of the danger zone.

"Where are they going?" Tony asked, frowning at the blow by blow frames showing them driving down the highway parallel to the coast. "They are not going away from the coast, they must leave the danger zone! Where are they going?"

"That's the problem. I don't know." Abby said. "I was able to download the pictures all the way to this moment, but after that, that's the last picture where I have them."

Abby points to a picture of the white Toyota driving over a bridge, a few minutes before the tsunami hit.

Gibbs turned to Joseph, who was looking worriedly at the picture. "Joy is driving. Where would she go?"

Joseph looked at Gibbs and recited Psalm 121:

_"I lift up my eyes to the hills._  
_From where does my help come?_  
_My help comes from the Lord,_  
_who made heaven and earth."_

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Abby, do you have a wider angle of this picture?" Joseph asked and Abby typed hurriedly and they had a wide view of the plains, the valley and the mountains in the back of Sendai.

"Mountains... or high ground. There's no time to reach the mountains but they would look for something high and firm."

"There isn't much in the area where they are." She tried to look around their car. "Most are wooden houses, just two stores and most of them had been destroyed on the first wave."

"What's that here in the end of the picture?" Ziva points to a series of big buildings on the very edge of the image.

"I don't know, let me see if I can find another angle for it." Abby did a search on her computer and another angle appears.

"Sendai Airport."

"Do you think...?" Tony looked at Gibbs, who immediately rushed to Abby that was already searching online all images of the Sendai airport that she could find in the internet.

"It is still there. It was one of the only buildings not destroyed in the Tsunami." Abby said in a quivering voice, shaking hands covering her mouth as she stared at the videos of NKH showing the waves invading the airport.

"People are still in there, waiting for evacuation." Ziva said, reading the news which came with the youtube video.

"Do you think that they've made it to the airport? If they've made it, they are just waiting for rescue." Tony glanced at Abby, who was crying softly staring at the replay of the destructive wave hitting again and again the airport.

"I don't know, but that's a start." Gibbs said, staring at the small car driving south towards the airport. "I'll talk to Vance, ask him if he can strong arm someone in Japan to give us a list of those stranded at the airport. It's a beginning."

His gaze went to the top right of the picture, where a rolling white surf could be seen speeding towards the coast.

He could only pray that they had made it before the wave hit.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

After a talk with Vance, they were informed that somehow they had reconnected Internet access in the airport, but the hours went by and no contact from the two missing agents came.

Abby, after four hours checking picture by picture, gave up and ran to autopsy, looking for consolation on Ducky's arms and a cup of tea for her fear and tears.

Tony and Ziva kept going through the dead and missing lists, always glancing at the plasma where the picture of the Toyota could be seen speeding down the highway in Sendai.

Joseph was also helping, checking names and manifestos which were being sent each half an hour to NCIS with the new identified bodies.

They spent the night working on it, checking manifesto after manifesto. Dead, missing and injured lists. Up until then, nothing.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Vance called Gibbs to his office at the beginning of the third day, asking for a moment.

Gibbs glared at Vance as soon as he guessed the subject of their talk.

"I'm declaring them MIA."

"It's only been 48 hours."

"It's been more than that and you know it. I can't keep on spending Agency resources and time on the search of two people who are most likely dead."

"There is a chance..."

"Have you really paid attention to the news? If they were in that little car when the wave hit, they were drowned in a matter of seconds. The number of missing are already in the thousands and the dead too. I can't keep on wasting resources on a task that is bound to fail."

"They are alive!"

"If they were alive as you believe they are, in the refuge at the airport, they would have already contacted us. The communication channels have been open for hours and still no sign of them. Of either of them."

"Something must have happened."

"Indeed. Something happened. A tsunami of never seen proportions happened and wiped them away." Vance stood up, looking at Gibbs who seemed to look older than his age in mere seconds. He softened his tone, but held his ground. "I know how important your agents are to you, but you have to accept that this time, they haven't made it."

Gibbs growled and stared at Vance, before leaving the room slamming the door shut after himself. Vance sighed at the harsh decision he had to make, but MCRT had to go back to rotation, as there were other cases that needed to be addressed. And he couldn't keep them on this faint hope that all would end well.

Sometimes hope was man's worst enemy.

He opened two files on his desk. He glanced at Buchanan' file and at McGee's file and the papers he had requested his secretary to fill out. Once he signed them, they would officially be listed as missing in action. After a while, they could be considered killed in action.

He leaned his head down, studying the pictures in both files. He had initially frowned at the relationship of the two agents, but their synchrony could not be denied, even by Gibbs.

It kind of sounded poetic that they both disappeared together and - why not? - died together as well. It was hard to imagine one without the other nowadays.

Vance looked up at the picture of his own family, sitting on his desk. Pity they wouldn't have another chance. He took his inkpen and took his hand to the papers, ready to sign them.

He stopped, glancing again at his own family picture, thinking about his agents and the horror they must have faced during their last moments. He laid the pen on the table, closed the files and put them back in the drawer.

Where there is life, there's still hope.

NCISN CIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs came down to the bullpen fuming, more than mad with the Director. How dare him give up on them yet? It's too early! They could be injured, waiting for rescue while he and his team were thousands of miles away checking lists.

They had to do something!

Gibbs reached the bullpen and everyone immediately felt the ire their leader was irradiating from his very skin.

He looked at Tony, Ziva, before his gaze finally landed on Joseph, whose face clouded over as he realized what that talk with the director could mean.

Ducky and a tearful Abby also came up to the bullpen, along with Jimmy who was holding Abby's hand firmly.

"Oh no, Jethro," said Ducky, just to have his fears confirmed by Gibbs.

"He's declaring them MIA. They are calling off the search." Gibbs said somberly, just to watch Abby's explosion.

"He can't do that! They are alive! They need our help!"

"Abs!"

"Gibbs, we have to help them!"

She sobbed and turned around, crying brokenheartedly on Ducky's shoulder. Jimmy sniffed, thinking about the amazing couple of agents who had been his friends. He would miss them.

Gibbs turned to Joseph, who was looking at him somberly. "Can you talk to Jack and ask him if he can take over the search and rescue?"

"I could try. But as I told you, there's no way to pinpoint exactly their position without..." Joseph points a finger up, indicating a spaceship in orbit. "There's no way they can do that."

At that moment, Gibbs phone chirped indicating an incoming text message.

Same happened with Abby's, Ducky's, Jimmy's, Ziva's and Tony's phones.

"What the hell?" Gibbs opened his phone and his sight clouded over with unshed tears as he read the message in the display, just barely hearing the shouts of joy of Abby or the excitement of Tony's words floating over his head.

Everything else disappeared and his world resumed to the few words blinking in his display.

**_Both Alive. Sendai Airport. Skype Elflord. Send Chopper ASAP._**


	27. ビデオ – Video

_**ビデオ – Vídeo**_

"They are not answering," Abby muttered, after trying to call them on Skype for the fiftieth time in one hour.

"They've just sent the message. They should be expecting our call," Tony muttered.

"Abby, can't you simply hack the computer they're in?" Jimmy's question made everyone look at him surprised. "Ah... I mean... they are online and connected, waiting for your call. Can't you track down their IP and start their camera even without the Skype?"

"Wouldn't that be illegal?" Ziva asked, glancing at Abby, who had already started tracking their IP.

"To quote Joseph, It's not hacking when you enter by the front door."

Gibbs glanced at Joseph who just grinned at him, as they waited for Abby to do her magic. She kept typing for a few minutes, while Ziva, Tony and the two older men waited anxiously for a glimpse of the two missing agents.

"I think I did it." Abby finally said, making all agents move to look at the plasma.

"Incoming image now."

It was frustrating, as there was only darkness on the image, with a faint light of a candle shining somewhere to right of the image.

The wall behind of the camera was white, with huge a huge JAL sign on it, but no sign of the two agents.

"Where are they?" Abby asked, trying to increase the midtones of the video.

"Is there an audio?" Tony asked and Abby immediately started recording the background sounds, so she could filter it in her own computer.

"That!" Ziva pointed, just so they could hear a murmur in the background.

Abby started filtering and finally...

"... What is the first thing you want to eat when we get out of here?" Tim's voice sounded just a whisper, followed by a moan.

"Chocolate." Came Joy's answer with a giggle.

"Those shakes from Larson's bar are to die for. Wanna have one when we're back in DC?"

"Sure, chocolate milkshake with a huge burger with all toppings." Both moaned and Gibbs and Joseph smirked at each other, imagining both agents thinking about food.

"I don't want to see sushi for a long long time." Tim's voice came with a sigh.

"I like fish. I just don't like it when the ocean comes with it." She said with a saddened voice.

"Ah Joy." The soft moan came followed by a giggle.

Gibbs decided to end the interlude with his usual finesse.

"MCGEE!"

Silence was his answer.

"Did you hear something?"

"It sounded strangely similar to..."

There was then a noise of things falling to the floor and things scratching the linoleum. Naked feet running and then finally a blue t-shirt along with the bruised face of McGee appeared on the screen, holding a flashlight on his hand, lighting his face.

"BOSS!"

"MCGEE! What the hell were you doing?"

McGee of course blushed before grabbing a chair and sitting in front of the computer station. He positioned the flashlight so its light illuminated his face.

"Ah... Boss, we..." He blushed deeper, just to look to Joy dragging a chair to sit beside him, her orange Guess jumper askew, showing a scratched shoulder and her face still holding scratches and pillow marks. Her hair was a mess and there were dark circles around both their eyes.

"We were trying to sleep, Boss." Joy croaked, her voice heavy with sleep. "Which we were able to do with no interruptions for …"she leaned to look at the watch in the corner of the screen. "... two hours?"

"More like three."

"Uhm..." She shook her head lightly trying to clear the cobwebs, before leaning her head on McGee's shoulder with closed eyes, just to receive a hiss from him.

"Sorry, bruised side." He said with a grimace.

"Okay." She whispered leaning and supporting her head in the palms of her hands instead.

"You two look like you've been through hell on earth. Are you okay?"

Joy just opened her eyes, letting McGee answer for both of them.

"We're alive, Boss. That must be enough. We're currently on the top floor of the Sendai Airport. We have electricity coming from some backup generators which hadn't been flooded as they were located on the top of the building, as well as they have some solar panels which are still working."

McGee looked down at his bruised fingers from the wiring of the building the night before.

"All communications are down; phones and mobiles were all temporarily knocked out and the electricity grid has been damaged. Some cellphone operators are back online, but not all of them."

"The towers were taken by the water," Joy added, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"The internet connection is now working thanks to the fact that they are high quality optic fiber and even under water they are still transmitting data."

"We had to manually connect the servers with the physical network, so that's why we look like prisoners of camps. We stayed most of the night under water or wiring the whole building to make it work."

"I was underwater, you were preparing a torture chamber for me."

"I was as cold as you."

"Wait a minute, you dived into the water?" Gibbs asked, almost blowing a gasket.

McGee fidgeted, noticing the disapproving look he was receiving from Gibbs.

"That's what manually resetting the servers means, Boss. And the server's were under water..."

"Under four feet of water." Joy added, her tired eyes looking at the screen.

"You could have died, McGee," Abby moaned, worried.

"He almost did." Joy muttered, glaring at McGee who just shrugged, unaffected.

"We needed to do that. The servers were reset and now we have Internet connection. Everyone with us had the chance of informing their loved ones that they were alive."

"But that was hours ago. Why didn't you contact us sooner?" Abby asked, still wondering about the silence hours since the return of power.

"We had other emergency to deal with it, boss. We kind of forgot." McGee added, chagrined.

"Forgot? Vance is already signing the papers to declare you MIA, and you forgot to contact us?" Now Gibbs was ready to chew them out.

"Boss, we're dealing with the emergencies as they come. Every hour there's a different fire we have to put out, literally." Joy added, explaining their situation.

"Speaking of fire, do you know if the fuel tanks fire outside the terminal is over?" McGee asked looking at Joy, who rubbed her forehead trying to remember.

"Mr. Osaka said that it stopped while we were with Makoto." She murmured.

"Uhm.."

"Boss, we can see some fires on the distance, but right now the water level is still approximately three feet as far as the eye can see."

"Things might still get worse before they get better." Tony said, bringing both agents to alert.

"What are you talking about, Tony?"

"The tsunami badly damaged the redundant cooling systems of some Japanese Nuclear Power plants by the coast, and there's been the recent concern of an accidental meltdown." Gibbs informed, noticing how McGee went visibly pale, looking at Joy with fear in his eyes.

"They are evacuating everyone ten kilometers around the power plant, just in case. And they've been working non stop to cool down the reactors, but there's the very real danger of an accidental meltdown." Ziva added, increasing their agitation.

"Oh God." He rubbed trembling hands over his face, "Which ones are the most badly hit?"

Joy left her seat by McGee and went out of the image, "Boss, wait a second, okay?"

McGee kept looking at her and they could hear Joy speaking in Japanese on some sort of radio, which chirped and burst with more Japanese. She came back to McGee's side and kept talking in Japanese in the short wave radio.

"Boss, which one is the worst hit?" she asked.

"Buchanan, they are having difficulty to cool the reactors of the Fukushima plant."

"Fukushima, uhm?"

She returns her attention to her radio and keeps talking in Japanese and they identify the word Fukushima several times.

She finally heard the radio speaking in Japanese, before turning to McGee.

"Osaka thought not important to warn us of the possible meltdown of the powerplant as we already had too much on his hands rewiring the place for the internet connection. But he knew all along."

"Damnit. How far are we from the blast zone?"

"A couple of dozen miles away. But so far they had evacuated thirty kilometers establishing a safe perimeter. But that's too little. If that thing blows up..."

"… it will be an accident worst than Chernobyl."

"And considering the wind rates, direction and the size of Honshu island... there won't be much left that might be inhabited after it."

McGee closed his eyes and rubbed shaking hands over his gaunt face, Tony and Gibbs looked worried at the bruises and cuts on his hands and arms which they could clearly see. Is that a bite on his arm?

"Are you okay, McGee? Have you had medical care?"

"What for, Boss? I'm fine."

"What about these bruises on your arms and hands?" Joseph asked, concerned about the younger man.

McGee looks curiously at his bruises, "Ah this? I cut it when we were moving some debris on the day of the earthquake. We administered first aid to some people but our resources are very restricted. There isn't much we can do right now, Boss."

"What's your condition?" Gibbs asked, already planning ahead.

"We have enough water and basic supplies to last two, maybe three days. The Japanese authorities have already contacted the head of the security of the airport, and we have provided videolinks of the destruction waves arriving to the airport, but they don't have an exact estimate of when they are going to evacuate us."

Joy added, "We hear some media helicopters flying over the building, but there's no way they can land as there's no dry land for the helicopters to touch down, and the ceiling is not the most appropriate place for this kind of landing."

"We're relatively safe and dry now, our main concern is keeping the huge number of elderly with us warm as the heating system has been knocked out."

"What about the case?"

"Forget the case, Boss."

"We have a dead petty officer here, Buchanan."

"And we have more than one thousand people dead just outside my door, Boss. Of those, I've counted at least one hundred bodies just floating by from my window this evening. I'm sorry I'm not worried about a dead petty officer in DC, but right now I'm much more worried about getting to the next morning alive than to closing the case."

"Joy," McGee called her attention, wrapping an arm over her shoulder and squeezing. She soon calmed down again.

"I'm sorry I was out of line."

Gibbs could clearly see that she was shaking and her eyes were filled with tears.

"Don't apologize. We're getting you out of there."


	28. レポート Report

_**レポート Report**_

The news of the imminent danger we were in did nothing to calm us down. After a long harsh conversation with Mr. Osaka about withdrawing vital information from us, we decided that sleeping was overrated. We simply stayed online to check on our loved ones and enjoy the feeble link with home, enjoying the simple pleasure of seeing beloved faces even if it was through the World Wide Web.

McGee stayed hours talking with Gibbs, then Tony and Ziva. Abby didn't know whether she should cry or scream excitedly, so she chose something in between, bubbling with nervous energy on the screen.

Just looking at all that bottled up energy was giving me a headache, so I simply kissed Tim's shaggy hair and left to be with the newborn and the young mother after reassuring everyone, including my Dad, that we were safe and sound.

After updating Gibbs, even the Director came to talk with Tim, but I was away while it happened so I have to rely on what he told me later to describe their conversation to you.

"What is your condition, Agent McGee?" Vance said, studying the dark bruises around McGee's eyes and the scratches on his pale face. He really looked as someone who had been through the ringer, the exhaustion and soul deep despair was there for all to see.

"As I've said to Boss, we're relatively safe." Tim glanced to Gibbs, before turning tired green eyes to Vance. "We're still waiting to be evacuated but hopefully sometime today the water will be low enough so the helicopters can land on the airstrip."

"We've searching options for you two, as soon as we have a final answer we will inform you immediately. Just leave this communication channel open and we will contact you as soon as I have an answer from my contacts from the Yokosuka office."

McGee's expression changed briefly and Gibbs immediately noticed his insecurity to ask what was on his mind.

"Tim," he asked gently, just to notice green eyes fixed on him. "Talk to me."

"Ah... there was... there was a family back in the base. When we stayed back in the navy base in Yokosuka. The mother's name is Minako and the little boy's name is... Yori. They are Senior Petty Officer Johansen's family. Is there any way you could verify if..." Green eyes silently pleaded, gulping before completing the sentence. "...Verify if they were okay?"

"Someone you know, Agent McGee?" Vance's voice surprisingly took a gentle tone, noticing the heartbroken look in the young agent's eyes as he stared sightlessly to the screen, his mind stuck in the images of destruction replaying again and again before his eyes.

"Ah... Minako was our host while in Yokosuka and... I've promised Yori I would come back." McGee's voice became even softer, as his mind drifted again, leaving him completely unaware of whom he was talking to as he began to shiver uncontrollably. "I promised I would come back."

Vance and Gibbs exchanged a glance, noticing the effect the events had in one of their agents, silently communicating that, once they had them back, those two certainly would need some therapy sessions to deal with the trauma.

No one goes through what they did without scars. Dying was a definite solution, but surviving involved a whole lot more than simply walking away more or less unscathed.

Gibbs lifted his eyebrows to Vance, silently asking if they should tell them about the death of their liaison in the Yokosuka NCIS office. Vance silently shook his head, before motioning with his head McGee's scratched face on their screen. If McGee was acting like that only considering the possibility of someone he knew being dead on the earthquake, how would he react if they told him that Agent Riggins had died?

"We'll find them, Tim." McGee's sad eyes finally fixed again on the screen, nodding gently at the certainty he could feel in Gibbs' words. "We'll find them."

"Thanks, Boss."

"Meanwhile try to get some sleep. You two look like Zombies and need more than three hours of uninterrupted rest."

McGee sighed, looking at something out of the screen, towards the doors leading to the hall where the survivors were all gathered and where I had disappeared a few minutes earlier.

"There's so much to do. They've organized a small kitchen and we're rationing supplies but the bathrooms are not really working so we have to control access to them too and the cellphones reception is just spotty at best and..."

"Hey. Let the others worry about that. You helped enough." Gibbs barked at him, immediately getting the reaction he expected. McGee jumped into his seat, his eyes cleared and finally fixed completely aware on the screen.

"Sure, will do, Boss."

"Now go get some rest. We will contact you when we have some news."

After the mandatory goodbyes, McGee cut the connection but left the computer on, just in case any incoming call from DC came by while he rested. He left our spot at the JAL boarding area and went looking for me, searching amid the survivors scattered on the main mezzanine.

People where huddled in blankets and jackets and clothes, making improvised cots on the cold marble floor. Women tended to gather together, their heads bowed as they spoke to one another, the sound of the murmurs in Japanese filling the air with a soft melody.

He waved at Itsuki, who grinned at him before lowering his head to his book, which he had somehow found in one of the luggage suitcases the security and we had dragged to the mezzanine in order to look for anything to keep us alive and mentally sane during our forced stay in the international transit area.

He finally found me in the small darkened room with Keiko, where I was sitting beside her and Hikari, both of us admiring the tiny little human wiggling her tiny arms and legs in the air. We had used an emptied suitcase as cradle, filled it with towels and t-shirts in order to make an improvised crib.

He studied us for a few minutes unnoticed, until I felt a shiver of awareness of his gaze on my skin. I lifted tear filled eyes to him and gave him a trembling smile, noticing the gentle smile in his beloved face at the same time he supported his tall frame tiredly against the door threshold.

"How is she?" He whispered, unwilling to startle mom and baby if they were asleep.

Keiko lifted her head and smiled brightly at McGee, waving her hand asking him to enter the room and come closer. He tiredly left his comfortable spot and sat beside me, his huge legs uncomfortably folding and cracking with painful noises as he knelt on the floor beside me. He glanced at me briefly, whispering that all was well back home before turning to Keiko, whose smile was huge as she showed off her beautiful baby in the improvised crib.

"This is my daughter, McGee-San. Thanks for being there for me."

McGee leaned forward, his huge hands stretching towards the alert baby and he was charmed when the baby took one of his fingers in a firm grip and squeezed. He looked up at me then at Keiko, a serene smile gracing his face as he said in a choked up voice.

"The honor was mine, Keiko."

"Have you decided on a name yet?" I asked, leaning a bit against McGee's side and being rewarded with a strong arm snaking around my waist, bringing me against his chest as he negotiated a more comfortable sitting arrangement for his legs. This whole kneeling on hard concrete/marble wasn't cut out for someone who wasn't as padded with fat tissue as he used to be.

He squeezed my waist and I relaxed against his side, feeling exhaustion rolling over me in waves and just half heartedly hearing Keiko's answer.

"I've promised my husband he would name our child. I've tried to contact him but couldn't find him. I'll see if I can try again. If not, I'll name our child and tell him later on."


	29. 睡眠  Sleep

_**睡眠 - Sleep**_

We hung around for some time with Keiko and her newborn girl, enjoying the quiet and the breathing of a young life we had helped to bring into this world, while our minds were stuck in an endless reel of images of those we hadn't been able to save. Sleep was needed, but every time one of us closed our eyes we would soon be startled awake as the faces of those we drove by - and left behind - on the highway came back haunting us.

McGee sat down with his stretched legs before him on some blankets, urging me to sit by his side so he could hold me in his arms. Whenever he would start to drift off he would shudder, his arms tightening almost painfully around my waist and squeezing me against his chest. My head lay on his chest and I could clearly feel the change of his beating heart and how his breathing would hitch, before becoming elaborated again.

I didn't complain as I needed the reassurance that he was alive as much as he needed to know that I survived too so I simply hid my face on his chest and squeezed his other arm, lightly humming until the grip of his fingers became slack again and his breathing became more regular.

I didn't bother trying closing my eyes, choosing to keep vigil over his attempts of sleep instead. Whenever I closed my eyes my mind would show me the houses where we found Mr. Nihara's body. I would see those fishermen and retired people all gathered in the main park at the entrance of the village. The women walking with the help of canes, chatting amicably towards one another, living their lives completely unaware of the monster wave coming towards them.

I wonder if any of them have survived.

I shivered violently and Tim immediately tightened his grip around my waist, his eyes closed but his breathing regular. He has always been a light sleeper, but whenever he was really tired it took a whole marching band screaming by his ear to wake him up.

After two or three hours of fitful sleep, Itsuki poked his head in the room where we were with Keiko, Hikari and the baby and whispered that his grandmother wished to speak to us.

I nudged McGee awake and he immediately opened his green eyes, blinking repeatedly to drive the sleep out of them. I pointed to Itsuki who waved at us again.

Time held no meaning for us anymore. The hours of the day and the night bungled together as a strange mass, so I was faintly surprised to see that it was again light outside, illuminating the Mezzanine. But as the lights were off in order to spare the emergency generators, the corridors were illuminated only by the reflection of the light on the clear marble floors.

We followed the boy all the way to a quiet corner where the old Japanese lady sat as a queen on her improvised throne, surrounded by blankets and pillows to keep her warm on the cold marble floor.

She started speaking and pointing to some blankets hazardously pilled close to her left.

I smiled faintly as Itsuki immediately started translating his old grandmother, "Makoto says you sleep here, she will watch over you. You tired. Sleep now."

"Is that an order?" McGee asked with a small smile at the old lady, who kept speaking and pointing to the blankets.

"I would think so." I muttered, feeling the stress of the last few hours and days weighing heavily on me, my eyes almost closing now that the adrenaline was almost gone and all scratches, aches and bruises were making themselves known.

I kicked my shoes off, taking all layers of clothes off leaving only a thin shirt on, along with my pantyhose before digging my way through the blankets. I lifted them invitingly and just waited until McGee did the same with his clothes, carefully folding them before he laid right beside me, his arms and legs thrown around me as he spooned me, creating a small cocoon of warmth.

I felt him sighing against my neck, his cheek no more soft but with the faint whiskers scratching my skin as his breathing started to warm my neck, as he moved my hair out of the way.

"Are you warm in there?" We were both facing the wall and he pulled another blanket over us, effectively blocking the warmth between our bodies.

"I am now." I still felt one of his hands moving so it rested over my tummy, under my shirt, effectively using my own body warmth to heat his cold hand as I did when I dragged him from that freezing well of horrors of the ground floor, before he kissed me on my neck and I fell asleep with his faint breathing against my ear.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The murmuring of soft Japanese woke up McGee several hours later and he slowly rolled away from the warmth of my body to look at someone who was leaning over us, just to find the smiling face of Itsuki over him, "You awake? Mr. Osara wants to speak to you."

"I'm awake, I'm awake," McGee croaked, resting his back on the floor and staring at the ceiling of the terminal, blinking to get the sleep out of his eyes. He glanced at me briefly, noticing my rat's nest hair and the bruises of sleepless nights around my eyes and decided to let me sleep for a couple more hours.

Makoto started saying something and Itsuki started translating, sitting right beside the American who saved his life.

_"Grandmother says that you are very lucky man."__  
_  
McGee sat and arranged the blankets around me, somehow not waking me up.

"Really? Why?" He said distractedly, sighing deeply as he rubbed a finger trying to clean a smudge of dirt from my face.

_"You have fierce wife. Strong and brave_." Itsuki smiled, showing his gaping tooth.

McGee stood up and ran his fingers through Itsuki's hair, messing up with the black bangles.

"She's not my wife."

Itsuki translated it to his grandmother, who became mad and started speaking in rapid fire Japanese, which Itsuki struggled to translate as fast as she speaks.  
_  
__"Why not? You two must get married and have babies. She is crouching tiger, ready to attack anyone who dares come close to her litter. What's wrong with this generation?"__  
_  
McGee chuckled as he looked at the angry lady, who waved her fists on the air as she berated him at what she considered an evil of his generation.

"It's complicated. You see, we work together."

Itsuki translated it to Makoto, who immediately answered back.

_"If it's complicated, then uncomplicate it. There is only one life to be lived, and it can be over in one minute. A few seconds that the earth shakes, the water comes and covers everything and then there's only death on the land."__  
_  
He looked at Makoto as stood up and waved her hand in the air in front of his face as she kept speaking and Itsuki translating.

_"Don't wait for better moment, as the waves of tsunami come and shatter everything. When you think there's peace, then comes destruction. Don't bother about work. Work won't keep you warm. Work won't sleep beside you. Work is only work, not life."__  
_  
"I'll..." he gulped, thinking about all the lives which were lost during the last twenty four hours, and the many more which would still die in the aftermath. They had been spared, but many hadn't. "I'll think about it, Makoto."

He leaned forward, saluting her in the Japanese traditional way. She smiled a gaped toothed smile and tapped him on his hand, indicating the airport security guard who is waiting for him a few steps back. He went to the guard, letting me sleep under the watchful guard of the old lady, who sat closer to me and started running her fingers over my curly hair, lightly humming an old Japanese song.


	30. 夢 Dreams

a/n: Again, I love Music from around the world and Japanese Music is milenar. Here we're going to show another tiny bit of it. The soundrack for this chapter is the following video in Youtube: **_Sakura - Japanese flute ( Japanese Trad. ) _** Beautiful Music played in the traditional Japanese flute, Shakuhachi.

Please enjoy this chapter with that video playing in the background.

* * *

**_夢 Dreams_**

A haunting melody entered my dreams, as I dreamt of green rice fields as far as the eye could see, where Japanese women in field worker clothing were slowly walking through the water filled pads sowing rice.

The mountains with their ice covered tops made a majestic backdrop for the bucolic scene as I observed them talking and laughing as they went on their everyday life.

I suddenly heard a roar coming from behind me and the skies turned from blue to gray. The birds took flight, trying to escape of something only they could sense and see. I turned around and I saw a wall of water, approximately sixteen feet high, rushing in an amazing speed towards us, towards them. I turned and I screamed at them, trying to warn them of the danger.

But they still kept working and singing. My screams fell short of their ears, and the wave came...

"NOOOOO" I wake up screaming, hot tears on my face as sobs erupted from my chest as the enormity the tragedy hit me anew, and I vaguely felt a comforting hand on my back, trying to soothe me as I hid my face on the palms of my hands and let all helplessness and despair run its course.

As sobs shook me, I felt gnarled hands running through my messy hair, which now was dirty and all in knots. Those hands guided my head towards a small chest with sagging breasts as I sobbed my fear in Makoto's arms and she kept humming lowly, speaking lightly something that my mind can't really translate.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

After my crying fit was over, I sniffed and cleaned my face with a piece of cloth that Makoto gave me. I sat beside the old lady and we shared an amicable silence as we looked on to the constant movement between the survivors, one supporting the other, some showing something in their cell phone to the other.

Finally she broke the silence, speaking in Japanese, _"You are good girl. Very brave. Thanks for saving me and my grandson."_

_"You're welcome Makoto. I just wish I could have saved more."_I looked around the terminal at the few people who have shared hell with us.

_"Can't save everyone. The dead belong to Death. No way you can take them away from its cold hands."_

_"Yeah."_ I frowned, thinking about the reason why we've travelled to Japan. _"But after all this, we've still failed."_

_"How? You are alive. It's victory enough."_

_"Yeah, but, you see, we were sent here to fulfill a mission. Now, there's no way we can do it."_

_"What mission?"_

_"We should find a woman named Miss Tezeri and keep her safe. But she was probably one of the many victims who died when the waters came."_

_"Tezeri?"_

_"Yes, Miss Keiko Tezeri. She was an acquaintance from Mr. Ishiro Nihara. She must be dead, washed away with the waters."_

_"No, Nihara's student is alive. You've met her."_

I look surprised at at Makoto as that's news to me. _"Who?"_

_"Keiko is Nihara's student. But now her name is Mrs. Travis."_

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCI

Keiko put a finger between the mouth of her newborn and her nipple, separating the baby from herself. She has got a small piece of cloth, ripped from a clean t-shirt found in one of the suitcases ransacked by the marooned survivors and wiped the delicate mouth of her baby.

She laughed softly as the baby blinked tiredly at her, her eyes crossing as she tried to look at Keiko's face.

A shadow suddenly came over Keiko and her baby and when she looked up she found the two Americans who had saved her from the rubble and the killer waters of the tsunami.

The expression on their faces was serious, as their eyes moved from her face to the baby in her arms.

"Miss Tezeri, Keiko Tezeri?" The tall blond man asked and she shivered at the stern look on his face as he studies her.

"I'm not Tezeri anymore. My name is Travis, as my husband."


	31. 悲哀 Sorrow

_**悲哀 Sorrow**_

"'I've met my Will when Mr. Nihara suggested I play Go with him. Travis was good player, with great promise, but I was better. So Mr. Nihara told me to play and test him. Teach him how to become a better player."

I, McGee and Keiko sat at one of the tables of the dining area of the airport, away from the other survivors, as we had no wish to make Keiko target to gossip. She held her slumbering baby in her arms tightly as she told us her story and both I and McGee observed every expression on her face.

Her life was hard enough with the situation she was in and I really wasn't eager to drop our news on her yet.

"How did you two become involved?"

She frowned as she played with the tiny hands of her daughter, firmly held in her arms, "I was a 王女, a princess, as my brother was very high in the family he worked for. No man was allowed to touch me without my brother's or the family's permission. But my brother, despite all his restrictions, knew how important Go was to me so he allowed me to participate in competitions."

She chuckled, remembering good times when her life was simple and she found the man who would become the father of the child in her arms.

"At first, we were ruthless competitors. Will was eager to prove that a Western man could achieve the best results on Go. But I kept beating him, showing greater strategy. We would not share words, as our only contact was through our duels over the _gobans_. We dueled for a whole year until he followed me one night after our meeting at the club, and begged me to teach him."

She smiled softly thinking about him. "We then started meeting outside the Go club, with ours _goishis _dueling each other."

"Your _goishis _are not the only thing that dueled each other," I said looking at the child firmly held in her arms.

Keiko blushed and nodded, "Soon we became lovers and when I realized I was pregnant, Will went to Mr. Nihara to ask for his help to marry me, to protect me with his name. That protection was not enough, so Mr. Nihara took me away from Tokyo, hiding me away from my brother's clutches, while Will requested a transfer to DC, where he would request his family's assistance to bring me to America. His father is important there in the Navy, so he could help with the immigration process."

McGee sighed and I looked at him, seeing the same frustration I'm feeling clearly expressed on his face. Keiko kept telling us her story.

"Will promised that he was going to get all the papers so I could go to America. He will be so proud when he meets his daughter."

"Keiko," I looked at her with pity in my eyes, agonizing about the responsibility of sharing terrible news with her.

"Daddy will love you, sweety. Yes he will." Keiko said looking at the yawning child.

"Keiko," McGee said in a soft voice, "He's not coming."

That caught her attention and she looked at us with wide eyes - at least as wide as her oriental eyes can do right now.

"What do you mean? Of course he will. My husband never breaks his promises. He promised he would get me away from my brother and he did it; he promised that he would send the money to Mr. Nihara so he could cover the expenses of our house and he sent it. He never breaks his promises. Not my Will."

"Keiko, he _can't _come." I noticed when she finally realized what we were trying to tell her, as her eyes filled with tears and she started sobbing.

"What? How?"

"Apparently, when your brother couldn't find any trace of you he went after Will. He wasn't exactly hiding and as his service record in the Navy was not sealed, easily accessible to anyone with the right computer skills to hack it... It was just a matter of time." McGee said, pity marking each of his words.

"No," Keiko lifted a trembling hand, covering her mouth and starting to cry. "No, you lie. My Will is fine. He's coming for me, no no please..."

The baby felt her mother's distress, starting to cry, the strident sound piercing our ears, as both mother and child now cry for a man who is not there anymore for them.

"I'm sorry for your loss." McGee murmured and after a quick glance to him, I stood up and went towards Keiko, hugging both mother and child as both sob brokenheartedly.


	32. 計画に Plans

**_計画に Plans_**

Gibbs entered the MTAC and the techs hurried to establish the connection to his agents. He frowned as the image flickered and finally showed the figure of Buchanan staring to the left of the screen with a very pensive face, not aware that the transmission had already started.

Her hair was braided to the side, with several curls out of place, not the normal precise curls he was used to seeing in her.

Her clothing was dirty, but her eyes wer the most striking figure as always, showing all her despair as she battled a hopeless situation, trying to keep up swimming against a destructive tide that literally destroyed everything in its wake.

She looked … defeated.

"Hey, Buchanan."

"Boss," she croaked, bringing her hands to her face to wipe a solitary tear on her cheek before sitting straighter on the chair in front of the computer screen. "Hi."

"How are things over there?"

"Eventful." She bit her lower lip, before looking to something outside of the screen.

"Boss, the Japanese authorities are evacuating us in the next few hours. The water retreated so the rescue helicopters can actually touch ground to take us elsewhere. I don't know exactly where they will take us or if we will have a reliable internet access over there. So I need you to clear the way for us … so we may be transported to America ASAP."

"I'm working on that, Buchanan. I'm working on that," he saw how exhausted his agent is, with deep dark circles around her eyes, "Have you slept at all? You look exhausted."

She rolled her shoulders, trying to dispel tension, leaning her head to the side as she looked to the camera, "Couple of hours. Three tops. I don't know. I'll also need something … our documents, passports and credit cards actually stayed in the car when we ran into the airport terminal, and... the car is... well, gone."

"We've arranged for you to be transported to one of the USS Navy carriers just off the Japanese Coast. They are planning to do round trips between US and Japan bringing supplies and manpower to the rescue efforts. The airports are chaotic right now, so you're coming back by Navy."

She smiled at that piece of news, "McGee is going to hate every single minute of it."

"If he complains, tell him to come home swimming." Gibbs retorted and Buchanan couldn't help a small laughter. Her mirth soon faded and she was again facing him with a lost expression on her eyes, as her mind drifted to more serious matters.

"Boss, were you able to nail down the bastard who killed Petty Officer Travis?"

Gibbs was surprised by her change of topics, as her situation was so dire that there was no space to worry about the case.

"Don't worry about that. We've got him. Once we showed him the images of the earthquake and tsunami, telling him that his sister was dead... he confessed. His intention wasn't to kill her, he just wanted to bring her home. At least that's his words."

"Yeah," she sighed, "she just needed to go home." She frowned as she said the last words, and Gibbs immediately recognized Buchanan's face: it's the face she gets when she has just figured out something.

"Buchanan?"

"Uhmm?"

"What's going on?"

"Home." She leaned towards the camera, her face becoming gigantic on the screen, "I need to talk to Abby."

"Abby? What for?" Joy leaned back, her face again the normal size, as she stared at Gibbs for a moment.

"It's woman's stuff. I need her help with something."

Gibbs smiled at that and looked at the techs, who also smirked at the strange request.

"Woman's stuff?"

"Yeah."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

A few minutes later, the always hyper Goth entered the MTAC, smiling as she saw the agent at the Skype connection.

"Ah Buchanan, I'm so happy that you're fine. I cried so much when the first videos came about the earthquake."

"Abby," Buchanan tried to speak, but the Gothic was not done yet.

"And when we heard that you were headed to Sendai, I panicked. I truly panicked."

"Abby,"

"And then you sent us the text, we were so happy that well... I cried again."

"ABBY"

"Yes."

"I have a mission for you."

Abby smiled brightly eager to begin, "Shoot. What do you need? Is it dangerous? Or adventurous? Or-"

"None of the above. But it's something right up your alley. I need you to do some shopping..."

After fifteen minutes speaking, Abby was eager to start, while Buchanan was more confident that they might be able to pull the stunt she had just planned off.

"Can you do it?"

"It shall be done when you arrive here."

"Thanks Abs, you're a genius."


	33. 救助 Rescue

**_救助 Rescue_**

The helicopters came when we ran out of clean water, as there were no more gallons to drink of. Some of us ran out of the terminal, signaling to the dark winged angels to land as close as possible of the terminal, while some of us stayed to help the injured and the elderly make their way down from the upper floors.

McGee carried Makoto in his strong arms with Itsuki by his side, while my arms were around Keiko's shoulders as she carried her precious bundle out of our refuge for the last three days.

The Japanese soldiers started to pour out of two helicopters, running towards us and helping herd the survivors towards the machines, their engines still on lifting the dust and dirt which had covered the tarmac of the airport once the waters receded.

One of the helicopters was different and I recognized it as one of the SeaHawk helicopters assigned to Navy carriers. I almost started bawling when I saw two uniformed men running towards us, their navy uniforms so familiar and dear.

"Agent McGee, Agent Buchanan?" one of the officers asked as soon as we're in hearing range.

"Yes" McGee shouted trying to be heard over the rotors.

"We've been ordered to transport you immediately to US Tortuga, sir, ma'am."

I glanced at McGee, whose eyes were firmly set on Makoto. The old lady smiled and touched his cheek, speaking in Japanese and Itsuki translated it.

_"It's time to go home, son. Leave this wasteland behind and go home."_

"Are you going to be okay?" He asked as he gently deposited her on the floor and Itsuki translated his words to his grandmother, who laughed, the sound crackling in the air.

_"The earth shook. It did not kill me. The water came. It did not kill me. I'll be fine."_

Once we heard the translation of her words, we smiled and agreed with that brave lady, who then turned to one of the Japanese soldiers who rushed to her and offered his back so she could climb on him to be transported to the military helicopter. When Makoto and Itsuki were inside it, they waved at us and we waved back, knowing that we probably won't ever meet or hear from them again.

"Ma'am, we have to go." The officer said and I started walking to the helicopter.

My arms were still firmly set around Keiko's shoulders as I silently guided her to her new life. The soldier took a step blocking my way, looking at me then at Keiko.

"Ma'am, we're only authorized to take the two of you. No Japanese civilians are allowed."

I stared at the officer, "I don't see any Japanese civilian here. Do you, McGee?"

I silently begged him to follow my lead, as I was playing a major bluff here and it would all go down the drain if he didn't act convincingly.

"Nope. No Japanese civilians here."

We both looked at the officer with the most placid faces and he looked disgruntled at the young Japanese looking woman by our side, holding a small baby wrapped in a jersey shirt.

"She's an American citizen. So is her child. She's the one we were sent to look for. We're taking her with us." McGee said, just staring at the officer daring him to contradict him.

The two officers looked at each other then at Keiko. I felt my conviction grow firmer, as I'm aware that there was no future and no life for the mother and child here. "We're not going empty handed back home. If she's not going, neither are we."

"We will have to clear it with our commander."

"Do whatever you have to do." McGee said.

A few disgruntled radio messages were exchanged and a few minutes later we were leaving the ground, seeing the littered and almost destroyed terminal becoming smaller and smaller. From the air we could see the extent of the destruction of the tsunami that somehow spared us. The rice fields which surrounded the airport were still filled with salt water, and the debris of the destroyed houses littered the coast in a continuous line of destruction.

Mile after mile we've flown over and the desolation picture was the same, the words repeated themselves over and over in my mind trying to describe what we were seeing.

Dirt.

Debris.

Death.

Destruction.

From our little refuge we saw the waters coming, but we had no idea the sea had been so unforgiving to the Japanese people. I burrowed deeply into McGee's arms, feeling the warmth of his arms around me and hearing his heart beating comfortingly under my ear.

A cooing sound caught my attention and I looked at Keiko sitting between two Navy officers, her face scrunched with sorrow as she saw the destruction of the place she had once called home.

One of the officers leaned towards the child cooing in her lap and he asks trying to distract the beautiful Japanese lady sitting beside him from the destruction quickly sliding under us.

"Have you decided on a name yet?" he shouted over the rotors and Keiko glanced at him for a long minute, before her gaze landed on me and McGee, sitting right in front of her. She smiled placidly as she studied us, her eyes shining with a light that I have never imagined seeing in them after all she's been through.

"Yes, her name is Beauty."

I can't help smiling at that and I'm sure the same idiotic smile is on McGee's face as well.


	34. リターン Return

_**リターン Return**_

The trip home was uncomfortable. As soon as the SeaHawk landed on US Tortuga, the officers rushed mother and child to the medic on board. McGee also had to be admitted as he almost immediately got sick, as his usual nausea, when couple with mild dehydration and shock, came with vengeance and immediately tackled him down, leaving him miserable in mere minutes after our feet touched the landing pad of the US Tortuga.

I love the man, but I prefer him when he is rosy and blushing, not when he is so pale and vomiting all he has eaten and most important, what he hadn't eaten.

The doctor on board took one look at him and immediately admitted him, so McGee spent most of our trip back home in the infirmary, receiving his anti nausea medicine straight on the vein, moaning and being miserable all the time.

That left me alone to deal with a very angry CO on my own as well as a very nosy agent afloat who literally wanted to know everything that has happened during our time in the earthquake and tsunami hit area.

The US Tortuga, after deploying their marine platoons and unloading the emergency supplies it brought to the devastated areas, turned around and started the slow trek through the Pacific towards America.

Next port: San Diego, California.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs's face was impassive when he saw me in his screen in MTAC, just a few hours before US Tortuga reached San Diego Port. Tony was beside him with Ziva in her usual cargo pants and green t-shirt.

"Where's McGoo?" Tony's question were out even before I sat before the screen, glancing at the agent afloat who was almost bubbling with energy on my side.

"Infirmary for the duration of our trip."

"Are his injuries so serious that he needed medical attention?" Ziva asked, concern about her teammate carefully hidden in her question.

I grimaced in response, before rubbing a hand over my burning eyes. Except for those few hours we had after I fished him out of the filthy water, when we rested with Keiko and the four hours we slept under Makoto's careful watch, we had been running on nervous energy for days without a full night of sleep.

So obviously, once we were in the safety of the bunks of US Tortuga, we crashed. After reporting to the CO onboard, we slept sixteen hours non stop.

And in three hours we would be docking in San Diego, so we needed to arrange transportation from California to DC, ensuring the safe passage of our precious cargo.

"He is a bundle of bruises and scratches, but ramen and thin soy soup once a day is not enough to keep healthy a six foot one grown man who is mostly muscles and no fat tissue. Coupled with his usual motion sickness..." I left the sentence hanging, but Tony's grimace and Gibbs' small smirk showed me that they had got my drift.

"How bad is he?" Gibbs asked just to glare at Tony as he was his usual self.

"Did McBarf puke his insides out, Buchanan?" Ziva's elbow was, as always, straight on target. "OUCH"

I answered Gibbs' question with only a glare in Tony's direction. "He's been medicated for the last twenty four hours, so the symptoms have reduced greatly. The first four hours were pretty tough on him as the medication hadn't kicked in and his body was highly dehydrated from our forced isolation. Between this and his impromptu dive in filthy water, low immunity and forced rationing of food, the onboard doctor decided that it would be better to keep him in observation and with constant IV fluids being administered every two hours. They are lowering the dosage in one hour, so he can firm his sea legs before we finally dock in San Diego."

"About that..." Gibbs' face broke into one of his rare grins, making me extremely curious about what he was going to partake with me. "Again I'm amazed at your family's connections."

"Why? What did they do?"

"It's your dad. He's been on the phone since the moment you two boarded US Tortuga and apparently he had arranged transportation to bring you two to DC ASAP." Ziva said, remembering Joseph's several phone calls on the bullpen contacting his buddies in the Air Force all over the country.

"There will be a driver to take you directly to the airport on the docks." Gibbs said with a small smirk.

"How will I identify him? Is it someone I know?"

"You'll see." Gibbs said with a smirk.


	35. 医者 Doctor

**_医者 Doctor_**

US Tortuga slowly glided into the San Diego Port, where several people were waiting at the docks eager to see their loved ones and family on board. Several pallets of equipment were also in piles just waiting for the right moment to be taken on board.

I scanned the people looking for any familiar face, but sighed out loud when I couldn't find anyone. I felt a presence by my side and lowered my binoculars and gave it to him, who used it to scope the line of people on the dock.

While McGee searched the people on the ground, I took the chance of checking him out. He was still pale, but the dark circles around his eyes had faded a little with the forced rest and fluids administered during out trip. Thanks to the massive anti nausea dose he had received, he had been able to finally eat - and keep it down - so the emaciated look was fading along with the bruises on his arms and face, which weren't any more bluish but of a yellowish tone.

"Hey," I called him out and he lowered the binoculars and looked at me.

"Hey." He smiled thinly as he searched my face, noticing the flight uniform given to me by one of the marines on board. He was similarly dressed, as our clothes were fit only for the garbage after several days on our bodies.

"We're home." I said, receiving a brighter smile as he snaked an arm around my waist, resting his chin over my head as I burrowed deeper against his chest.

"Yeah, we're home."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Dr. Thomas Klein, the medic on board, was elated to have such a tiny little person to look after, after spending years checking sailors and marines on every single bruise and cut known by man.

He doted on Keiko and little Beauty, praised the mother for such appropriate name choice and checked them completely.

Still, due to the circumstances of her birth, we hadn't had the chance of doing the proper post birth exams that are usually done in infants and the medic also didn't have the necessary equipment for that, so he urged us to rush first thing to a hospital as soon as we docked so we could have little miss Beauty checked out.

"In my initial check up, she's a healthy five point six pounds seventeen inches girl. I've collected some blood and sent to exams, but the results won't be ready until after you are already offboard." Klein said, before looking at the tiny baby in an improvised blanket in his arms and cooing for her.

When the baby cooed back, he blushed and smiled, before turning to us and Keiko and continuing his recommendations. "I've given you two," he looked up from the baby to Keiko, "some vitamin supplements, but a visit to a pediatrician is essential for the good health of your baby. And when you are finally settled..."

He blushed and looked down adoringly at the baby in his arms, before saying in a choked voice to Keiko, "... please write. Or send me an e-mail. Pictures would be great. It's been so many years since I've actually looked after such tiny human being. Oh... you're so pretty, Beauty."

He stretched his arms and deposited the baby in the mother's arms, without disturbing her rest.

"Keep in touch, I want to know what happens to you."

"Thanks, Dr. Klein," McGee said, stretching his hand to be shaken by the doc.

"I'm the one who has to be thankful, Agent McGee. And please, here," he gave a pill box to McGee. "Don't forget to take this next time, okay."

McGee and I laughed as we looked at each other, my arm around Keiko's shoulders as I guided her out of the infirmary. "I'm going to sew some of those in invisible pockets of his trousers, just in case we have to face an emergency like this."

McGee grimaced and followed us out of the infirmary, after properly thanking and saying goodbye to Klein.

We left the US Tortuga with the help of some marines, who guided us all the way to the docks. We had no luggage with us, just the uniforms given by the chief petty officer on board and some improvised shirts we had used as nappies and a blanket to protect Beauty.

We looked around trying to find our driver, but it seemed that Gibbs was, for once, mistaken.

"Do you see anyone?" I asked McGee, who was using his superior height to look over the crowd while I kept Keiko and Beauty close by.

"Nope."

"We don't have any money. Do you think the Chief Security Officer would let us..."

"Miss Joy?" A deep tenor voice on my right makes me twist on my heels, surprising Keiko and Beauty.

McGee and I look at each other than at the thin black man in proper grey uniform, looking at us with a friendly smile and his pilot cap in his hand. His black eyes land on Keiko and the baby, his eyebrows going up in a silent question but his smile becomes even bigger.

"Your father told me that you've been through bad things but he in no moment told me that I should meet four not two people."

"Max?" I asked in a choked voice, as the former LA BAU pilot nodded before putting his hand on McGee's shoulder urging him to follow him.

"Miss Faith and your father told me have the wheels up in the air in thirty minutes, but I think you all need some food..." he gazed at the baby in Keiko's arms and smiled, "... as well as buying some much needed supplies."

"We need to take her to the hospital and we don't have any money."

"Going to a hospital would take time, but I think we can leave Miss Japan there with Mister McGee while Miss Joy and I go shopping, no? Your father sent me your things."

We mutely followed him out of the crowd, going to the car he had arranged for us.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

It was a relief to have our extra badges, documents and credit cards given to us. Due to circumstances, we took Beauty to a small clinic in the periphery of San Diego which gladly did not request any documents from us. While McGee stayed with Keiko and Beauty, Max and I went to a Walmart right beside the clinic where we bought enough food to feed a small army, as well as formula cans, bottles and baby clothes for Beauty.

Finally on board two hours later, we were soon in the air and sharing a meal while Keiko clothed and fed her tiny angel.

We offered the sofa for Keiko, who put the baby carrier on the floor and finally fell asleep, one of her hands still over the snoring baby.

McGee pulled me to the other corner of the airplane, after throwing all the empty boxes of Chinese food away and made me seat on his lap, while we slowly relaxed, certain that soon we would be back home and put that nightmare behind us. We stayed in silence for a long time, just feeling the vibration of the engines roaring outside while the airplane was filled with the muted noise of breathing of two fragile souls we had brought to America.

"You okay?" He asked against my hair, as he ran lazy fingers over my back.

"Uhhum... you?"

"Yeah." He sighed and fidgeted, making me tilt my head to look at his face.

"What?"

"What what?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Me?" He blinked tiredly before looking down at me, his hand going to my waist and moving me so I'm facing him. "I've been thinking... that maybe it's time."

"Time for what?"

"Seeing you with... with Beauty made me think ... I know we've talked about that before... briefly and..." He was stammering and blushing before his gaze became serious again. "I think it's time to … see that adoption thing."

I studied his face, noticing how serious he was. He kept going on as if afraid I would change my mind or interrupt him.

"I know that you... can't conceive… for several reasons and we... have talked with so many doctors who all had crushed our hopes so... if that's the only way we can... I'm all for it."

"Tim?" I whispered and he continued.

"And... you are right. I... _feel_ married. Not that I'm not going to marry you. I will. Rather sooner than later but I'm just saying that... I … when we do... _marry_ I mean... I want to have this sorted out already so we can... plan and... what I'm trying to say is... I don't want to wait."

He made all this speech with his eyes firmly on mine as I stared at him with tear filled eyes.

"I don't want to wait anymore." He repeated, this time in a choked whisper.

"Neither do I." I whispered back, letting silent tears fall unchecked.

He moved one hand to my face, drying my cheek with the tip of his finger, before running it around my chin. He moved his hand to the back of my head, bringing my face closer to his, whispering against my lips, before kissing me senseless. "I don't want to wait."


	36. 家  Home

_**家 - Home**_

We landed in DC on a Tuesday afternoon, five days after the tsunami and one week since we've left for Japan. We left the airplane with trepidation, as we saw Gibbs' car on the runway as the Lear Jet slowly rolled to a stop in the tarmac.

The steps were lowered and I left the airplane first, noticing the relieved expressions of Ziva, Tony, Ducky and Jimmy when they finally saw me alive and well.

Gibbs' face was inscrutable as always so I wasn't able to read his reaction when I turned around and helped a small Japanese lady down, as her other arm gripped her precious bundle against her chest.

Ziva and Tony gasped in surprise, immediately turning to Gibbs who kept looking at us without twitching a muscle.

McGee came after us and carried the baby bag with the basic supplies we had arranged.

McGee and I flanked our protégée and walked towards the team, until we finally reached them and felt the weight of Gibbs' stare on us, as his eyes moved from me, to Keiko and to McGee.

"What's the meaning of this?"

Trust Gibbs to always be direct. Tactless, but always direct.

"Boss," McGee glanced down to Keiko, who was almost hunched under the heat Gibbs' glare. "Let me introduce you to Keiko Travis, Petty Officer William Travis' wife, and his daughter, Beauty Travis."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

We urged Keiko to go with Ducky and Jimmy, who immediately took over the care of our little miracle.

Tony slowly approached McGee after Jimmy took the baby bag he was carrying and went towards Ducky's car and checked his Probie up and down.

The clothes were ill fitting and of low quality, but they were at least warm against the chill of the twilight.

"Hey, McGee." He asked unsure if he should punch his arm or hug him. McGee, since losing several pounds, seemed leaner and wiry, but he right now he looked simply exhausted.

McGee looked tiredly at Tony after forcing himself to tear his gaze from Keiko.

"Are you okay, man?"

"Are you able to handle the truth or do you prefer that I lie to you?"

Tony gulped nervously as he saw the tortured look in his usually softly spoken friend's eyes. A bone deep weariness of someone who has seen too much, too soon and was hanging on to the very last tether of his strength.

"I... I think I prefer the truth."

McGee blinked tiredly before looking down to the floor, rubbing his cold hands against his cheap jeans.

"I really … really need to sleep. For at least a week." He lifted his eyes and looked at Tony with red rimmed eyes, refusing to cry because if he started...

"Buchanan, what did you think you were doing?" Gibbs demanded to know, approaching me and waiting some reaction from my part. But I sincerely couldn't feel a thing, as my head felt like it was filled with cotton and I really couldn't care what he wanted or not.

"Boss, not here, please." I muttered tiredly, looking lovingly to the interior of the car, eager to simply lay on the backseat and sleep for a month. Or maybe two.

Ziva slowly approached and put her own jacket around my shoulders, for which I thanked her with a shaky smile.

"You can ask her motivations when we are back at the office. Here is not the place for this conversation." She said, guiding me towards the cozy and warm interior of the car.

I sat tiredly and immediately closed my eyes. A moment later I've felt the car dip as someone entered and sat beside me, a scratched fine boned hand touching my own. I briefly glanced at McGee as he sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the headrest. Ziva took the driver's seat while Tony took the front passenger seat, letting Gibbs take Keiko, Beauty and Jimmy in his own car.

The last car was Ducky's, which slowly followed the other two as they maneuvered out of the airport.

I leaned my head against McGee's shoulder and was fast asleep before we were out of the main gates.


	37. 相違 Difference

**_Chapter 37 - 相違 Difference_**

We drove through the main gates of the Navy Yard a little after six, so the night was already upon us and many agents had already left for the day. Tony and Ziva shook us awake, watching worriedly how sluggishly we moved out of the car, both of us having to stop and support ourselves against the door of the car to get the feeling and the blood back into our lower limbs.

We both looked concerned to Gibbs' car and we were happily surprised to see a gentle smile on Keiko's face as Jimmy chattered away non stop, holding the baby in his arms with an ease of someone used to it. Both left Gibbs' car and turned to us, waiting for Gibbs to leave the driver's seat.

Gibbs looked at us before glaring at Jimmy, who was still talking about nap time and proper feeding techniques.

Tony, upon hearing Jimmy's knowledge on the subject, couldn't refrain from commenting on it.

"Since when you're so good with babies, Jimmy? Are you hiding a gremlin junior somewhere?"

Jimmy cooed to the baby in his arms, before looking at Tony. "No, but I used to babysit the children of my second cousin once removed. They were a handful but I've got now great experience with nap time and diaper changes, bottle feeding and stuff."

We all looked at each other smiling, fascinated by discovering this unexpected facet of our dear autopsy gremlin.

"If I ever have children again, I already know who will babysit for me..." Gibbs muttered ironically, bringing smirks to all our faces.

Jimmy, however, took him literally.

"Really?"

We all followed Gibbs to the elevator, where he put his eye to be scanned then turned with a scowl to Jimmy, growling at him.

"NO!"

Keiko took a step back but I put a hand on her back and pushed her into the elevator.

"His bark is worst than his bite. Don't worry." I whispered to her ear as I guided her in.

Finally we were all on board, going to the bullpen.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The bullpen was mostly empty when we stepped out of the elevator and it was with trepidation that we looked around the familiar orange walls, a little bit surprised that there was nothing different from the time we left.

For us an eternity had come and gone but everything was the same.

We were different, not NCIS.

Director Vance was on the steps towards the mezzanine, looking down at us. His eyes immediately went to the Japanese woman and the little bundle in her arms, which Jimmy had returned to Keiko in our short trip up.

His gaze landed on Gibbs before finally moving to us, measuring us up and down. We approached our desks as one human mass with Keiko in the middle. A squeal brought our attention down, where Abby was standing with my father.

"Oh, my God, let me see the baby!" Abby bulldozed her way between Tony and Ziva and stopped before us and Keiko, looking enamored with the small blanket in Keiko's arms.

Keiko took a step back, looking frightened by the pale woman in pigtails looking excited at her. Abby noticed the effect she was having on her, so she toned down her enthusiasm, speaking softly so she would not startle the slumbering child.

"Please please, let me see her."

Tony and Ziva shared a look before talking with Abby, who gently took the baby from Keiko's arms and broke into a huge grin.

"Abby, you knew?" Gibbs stared at his Goth girl, who looked confused from Gibbs to us.

"What, you didn't ? Joy told me to organize everything for their arrival. From paperwork to diapers." She said looking at Gibbs, who now was glaring at me full force.

"Women's stuff, uhm?" He remembered my little private talk with Abby, so there was no denying it.

"Yep," I said pushing Keiko a little forward. "Keiko, this is a friend of mine. Her name is Abby. She has something to tell you and also to show you."

"Oh, you are so right. Come, you're going to love it."

Abby gently put a hand on Keiko's shoulder, guiding her down the corridor towards the conference rooms in the back always mindful of the precious cargo in her own arms.

"You had it all planned, didn't you?" Gibbs asked, looking from me to McGee.

McGee kept his gaze at Keiko's back for a moment before turning to Gibbs.

"Not really, Boss. We knew what we had to do but we had no idea how to pull it off. We weren't even sure if we would be able to get this far." He admitted softly, looking tiredly at Gibbs with a sad face.

I went around Tim and took two steps further, until I was standing before my Dad who had stayed in front of Tim's desk, just watching us reconnect.

I breathed deeply feeling my composure going down the drain as I fidgeted in front of him.

"Hey Dad."

"Hey Kiddo."

"Ah..."

My father has always known what to say whenever I needed to hear something. He has also always known when words are unnecessary.

"Come here, kiddo"

I sniffed before jumping into his arms, feeling him squeezing me in a tight embrace showing all his care and worry for me.

"Welcome home, Peanut."


	38. ギフト Gift

**_Chapter 38 - ギフト Gift_**

Tony and Ziva followed Keiko and Abby to the conference room, while Jimmy held the baby bag and waited for Ducky to come up so they could check the little child.

We followed a few steps back and we weren't surprised by the astonished gasp coming from Keiko when she entered the room.

Abby took her hand and proudly pulled her in, pointing here and there at the variety of things that she had been able to buy or find donations for Keiko and her baby. The room was piled up four feet high with baby clothes, diapers, woman's clothes Keiko's size, formula cans and all imaginable accessories a baby and a new mother might need.

"When I told what we were planning to do everyone in the building wanted to pitch in. The diapers came from cybercrimes, HR donated the newborn clothes, Counter-terrorism pitched in on the formulas and Josh, from the security gate downstairs, gave this super nice all in one bag for mothers. You can carry your cell phone, diapers, bottles and it is pink, like our pink baby."

Keiko walked around astonished, touching here and there as if she couldn't believe what her eyes were showing to her.

She ran her fingers on the side of a beautifully carved crib, which was on the corner of the room.

"That came from Graham, the chef of the cafeteria across the street."

"It's too much, I can't accept that."

"Ah, you can." Abby insisted, turning to us. "Please tell her that she has to accept it. We don't accept returns."

I took a step forward and took one of the teddy bears on the conference table, this one with a big tongue hanging out and a red ribbon around its head.

"You have to. It's what Will wanted." I said.

McGee left me and went to Keiko's side, his hands going to her shoulders forcing her to face him.

"Hey, Keiko."

She lifted her tear stained face to him, so he said in a gentle voice.

"You've been through hell but you need to know that Will was trying very hard to come back to you." Keiko brought a hand to her mouth, biting it to keep from sobbing as McGee talked to her. "He wanted a better life - a safer life - for his wife and child, and he fought until his last breath to keep you safe. I'm sure he would want you to accept this."

She looked around desolated, her sobs shaking her shoulders as she shook her head in denial. McGee took pity on her and hugged her, so we silently watched as she broke down before the generosity of complete strangers, willing to offer just a small solace and help in the start of her new life.


	39. ディレクタ  Director

**_Chapter 39 ディレクターDirector_**

"Are you even aware of the diplomatic problem you two involved this office in? Transporting an illegal immigrant on board a Navy Vessel, entering American borders without proper authorization, not to mention the abduction of a minor from her own country!" Vance roared at our ears, as me and McGee sat side by side and he prowled his office as a jailed lion with a toothache.

Gibbs was sitting before us from the other side of the conference table in Vance's office, his cold gaze moving from me to McGee then back at me.

We had left Keiko under Abby's care while Ducky and Jimmy examined Beauty thoroughly. Ziva stayed with the ladies checking all the gifts while Tony acted as bodyguard to the most fragile soul he had ever guarded.

McGee was staring fixedly to his big right hand finger tapping rhythmically the surface of the table, as Vance rallied at us about illegal aliens, proper procedures to be followed and misconduct of federal agents.

I simply watched Gibbs watching him before watching me again. The three of us stayed silent as Vance poured out his dissatisfaction with our acts with angry and harsh words.

Finally he supported his open hands on the table, leaning forward and growling at us.

"Do you have anything to say?"

McGee stopped his finger, finally lifting his gaze from the desktop and looking at Vance. I noticed the flicker of some human emotion - pity perhaps? - on Vance's face when he finally met McGee's face but he very quickly substituted it with his Director's face.

God forbid he ever would act as a human being in front of us.

"Do you have any idea how many people died in the Sendai alone?"

"This is not about the tragedy that happened..."

"It is all about the tragedy." McGee stood up interrupting Vance. He stared at the Director and said vehemently, "Director Vance, over ten thousand people died after the tsunami hit Honshu Island. We drove by hundreds of them and..." McGee shook his head trying to dispel the images of the people on the side of the road. "... we were able to help five. Five out of... hundreds."

McGee's voice was shaking, but his eyes were dry as he stared at the director.

"Once we figured out that one of the survivors we had helped was the woman who we were looking for, and we realized the situation she was in, did you really expect us to walk away? Just ask a few questions and leave her there to her own devices and fly back home with a sentiment of job well done?"

"This is not about your sentiments, Agent McGee."

"That's not the point," I interrupted both men arguing just to hear Gibbs' question.

"So what's the point?"

"The point is that she is dead!" I said, eliciting silence from the three men. They all turn to me, so I continue in a firmer voice. "For all purposes, Keiko _Tezeri_died in the aftermath of the tsunami wave that hit Sendai last Friday. There are no documents that might prove that she is alive and there is no one left alive to declare her missing. She's only one number in a very sad government list of the deaths in one of the worst catastrophes in modern day history."

I stood up and looked at Vance. "Yet, thanks to us, Keiko _Travis_lives. So does her daughter. The child was born after the tsunami hit. There are no documents certifying her birth or any medical records that might create a paper trail. There is no mention anywhere of a child born in the airport as our friends there agreed to keep Keiko's and Beauty's existence a secret among the survivors."

McGee nodded at my narrative and continued where I left off.

"The CO of the US Tortuga, once informed that the survivor was the widow of a murdered sailor, treated her as a widow of a KIA officer. No questions asked, no need of papers. We flew her to DC in a private plane, so we haven't had any contact with any immigration officers that might question us or her."

I nodded and touched McGee's arm, picking up the tale. "William Travis had all the paperwork done for his wife's arrival. Abby has gone through it and all we need to do is take her to an embassy and validate her approved visa. The child's paperwork will be first created here in America, stating that she was born at home, thus ensuring her nationality as American."

I walked around the desk, stopping before Vance, who stared at me without showing any emotion on his face.

"As Keiko _Tezeri_, she would be only one survivor in a ravished land with a bull's-eye on her back as it was just a matter of time before someone else from her brother's gang came looking for her. But as long Keiko _Tezeri_is dead..."

"... Keiko _Travis _can thrive." McGee completed my sentence, so we both exchanged a glance before looking at Vance.

"You had no right to make that call, Agent Buchanan."

His tense tone of voice showed clearly his disapproval.

"We were just fulfilling a dead man's last wish, Sir. He wanted his wife and child to have a fighting chance of survival."

"I somehow doubt that was his last wish." Gibbs said in a low voice, leaving his seat at the table too, approaching Vance.

"Why do you say that?"

Vance was almost gleeful when he told us, "Before being killed, PO Travis revealed his wife's location to her brother so he could send his henchman to collect her."

I glanced at McGee who looked shocked at that news, the same shock I was feeling.

"That can't be."

"No, he didn't." I said resolutely.

"Kyioshi Tezeri told us that, Buchanan." Vance said.

"Well, then he lied." McGee said in an altered voice.

Vance glared at him, making him realize that he just lifted his voice to the Director. McGee sighed loudly and turned his back at us, trying to calm down. I stared at his back as he breathed deeply, trying to put the facts together. I was also confused, tired and my mind wasn't working full speed but one thing I was sure: The Will Travis described to us by his parents, by his colleagues, Go Master and his wife would never reveal something so vital even under duress.

"If..." McGee started to speak, turning to look at me as he figured it out something, "Will had revealed his wife's location on the night he was murdered, why did they go to Mr. Nihara almost four days later?"

"And why would they beat and torture an old man for an information they've already had?" I looked up at him, grinning. "Unless..."

"Travis lied to them." Gibbs completed our line of thought, making us both look at him. "He must have spouted a random address just to appease Tezeri. As he knew he would die anyway, he tried to deceive the Yakusa soldier."

"But when they went to the address... they didn't find Keiko." I said.

McGee stared sightlessly ahead, remembering the small house in the fish port of Sendai. "With Travis dead, the only other person who had the info they needed was Nihara, thus the brutal torture."

"Did he reveal Keiko's location?" Vance asked, just to receive a negative from both of us.

"No, he withstood them until the end. They had started to finish him off when we arrived in the middle of their torture session." McGee said, glancing at me for a second.

"Keiko's address was hidden in a secret place only Nihara knew and he gave it to us begging us to help her." I said, rubbing my cold hands over my arms, feeling a shiver running down my spine.

"Any idea what happened to the Yakusa soldiers?" Vance's gaze went to the plasma, where a video of live HKN coverage was showing the debris filled streets of Iwate prefecture, one of the worst hit areas in Japan.

"A three story high wave washed over that area advancing almost six miles inland. We will never know for sure but my guess is that they are dead." McGee said in a somber tone, as we watched a video showing members of the Self Defense Force of Japan slowly going through the debris, looking for survivors and corpses.


	40. 祖父Grandfather

_**Chapter 40 祖父Grandfather**_

Keiko was sitting on an extra chair Tony put between his and McGee's desk, holding the alert baby in her arms as Jimmy and Abby tried to make faces for her.

"Hey, did you see that, she smiled at me." Jimmy said just to receive a smirk from Abby. "What?"

"That was just gas." Abby said, eliciting a giggle from Keiko.

"You are very good with children, Jimmy-San. You should have your own."

Keiko's comment elicited a deep blush from Jimmy, who started stammering "Ah... ahh I think it's... better to wait a little."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Ah... yes but... you see her family is... a little..."

"If he impregnates my youngest before taking wedding vows," Joseph said going to Jimmy's side and squeezing his shoulder painfully, "I'll be forced to throw him to the lions."

Jimmy blinked repeatedly behind his lenses, looking with frightened eyes to Joseph. "Ah, what lions are you talking about?"

Joseph's smile could only be described as predatory. "All four of her brothers."

Jimmy gulped while Joseph leaned towards him, whispering at his ear. "You know, her _marine _brothers. Imagine four Buchanan men with Gibbs' disposition and nature... but at the flower of their youth."

Jimmy opened his mouth but no sound came out, as he stared at Joseph with bulging eyes. Abby, Tony and Ziva started laughing at the scene, enjoying it greatly.

The relaxed atmosphere continued until the elevator beeped, indicating the arrival of people at the bullpen. A security guard pointed Admiral Travis and his wife towards the place where the group was gathered, surprised with the high spirits in there.

Tony was the first to notice their arrival, standing up in attention. Keiko also noticed something was going on and Abby silently motioned to her to be given the baby.

"What is the meaning of this? I was informed to report here immediately and you are not working on my son's murder case." Admiral Travis was a man of action and he was frustrated with the apparent laziness of the team.

Tony glanced at Ziva, who went around her desk and took Mrs. Travis hand in hers. The older woman looked at her with red eyes.

"Have you found my son's killer?"

Ziva nodded, squeezing Mrs. Travis hand when she started to cry. She looked up and saw Vance, Gibbs and their two team members coming down the stairs.

"Yes, we did, but that's not the only thing we've found."

"What? Do you have the killers in custody?" Admiral looked up and saw Gibbs approaching. Both men saluted each other and Gibbs glanced at Ziva before nodding in agreement.

Ziva let go of her hands taking a step back, while Tony took charge of the conversation.

"Your son was a loyal man whose morals lead him to a direct conflict with very bad men. Powerful men who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. In order to protect someone very dear to him, he offered his life in sacrifice, and that was an act of love."

Mrs. Travis took her husband's hand and squeezed, looking with tear filled eyes at Tony.

"What are you talking about?"

Ziva finally put a hand on Keiko's shoulder, bringing her closer to the grieving couple. The young Japanese beauty in her early twenties looked at them crying silently, her gaze jumping from one to the other. She finally bowed in the traditional salutation gesture of her country, as well as a sign of respect to them.

"We would like to introduce you to Keiko Travis, your son's wife, Admiral Travis."

Her grace and beauty surprised both the Admiral as well as his wife, who kept staring at her with shock.

"Honorable mother and father in law, it's an honor to meet you." She spoke in a melodious voice, her head still bowed. She glanced briefly at Tony, who nodded in encouragement. She lifted her head and looked into the Admiral's eyes.

"Your son was an honorable man, whom I loved very much. He came to America to inform you of our marriage, and he was preparing the necessary paperwork so I could come too. And yet, for loving me, he was killed. I'm very sorry for your loss."

"Will was... married? When did that happen? Why wasn't I aware of that?" Admiral looked at Gibbs, who took a step forward when he saw how the abrupt ways of the older man was scaring Keiko.

"There was a lot at stake in their relationship. She was on the run and he was trying to protect her from her own family. He promised that he would come to America to prepare everything but her family followed him and killed him trying to find out where he hid her back in Japan."

"He died protecting her location." Ziva said, eliciting a sob from Travis' mother.

Keiko wiped her face, before turning to Abby silently asking for her child. Both Admiral Travis and Mrs. Travis held back their breaths as Keiko turned to them with a small pink bundle in her arms.

"He died protecting us." She looked down to her baby. "I would like to introduce you to the life that my Will and I created. Your granddaughter is named Michiko 美智子, which means Beautiful child in Japanese."

Mrs. Travis looked at the pink bundle with tears in her eyes. "May I hold her?"

"Please, do."

Keiko gave the tiny baby to Mrs. Travis, who looked enchanted to the tiny pouty lips on the pinkish face.

"She's beautiful. She has her father's eyes."

Keiko smiled brightly to Mrs. Travis, proud of her newborn child.

"Your grandchild is very brave. She was born in my country's darkest hour, in the day after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the city where I've lived, Sendai."

"Sendai? But that city has been flattened out." Admiral Travis voice shook with emotion, looking at the beautiful young women before him nodding at his comment.

"Yes, it was."

She looked around, her gaze landing on McGee and Buchanan, who were just watching the meeting in silence.

"Yes, but they" she pointed to the two agents, "were there and saved me. They took me out of the rubble of my house and took me to a safe place and stayed by my side during the worst hours of my life. When the time came for Michiko to be born, they helped me through it all and then brought me to America, fulfilling Will's promise to me."

She looked at them with tears, "I owe my life to them and so does your grandchild."

Both the Admiral and his wife looked at them, deeply touched. Mrs. Travis approaches them with the baby in her arms.

"We won't ever be able to repay you for this great gift you've given us. Thank you. Thank you very much."

McGee smiled shakily before lifting a hand and floating it above the little girl's face. She cooed and immediately grabbed his pinkie, squeezing it firmly. "No payment is needed. Just take care of her and never let her forget her legacy."

"What legacy?" Admiral Travis asked, looking at the bruised and scratched agents before him. Looking carefully, the Admiral could see a few scratches on Keiko but the two agents before him looked dead on their feet. There were purple shadows around their eyes, as well as bruises and scratches on every bit of skin he could see.

He looked at the hand his granddaughter was holding and there were more cuts and bruises on it, but it was still gently touching the newborn.

"Hope. She showed us that, even though death was knocking on our doors, human spirit still fought to survive." McGee finally said, getting his finger out of Beauty's grasp and looking at the Admiral.

"Thank you." The admiral said deeply touched.

"You're welcome."


	41. さようなら Goodbye

**_Chapter 41 さようなら _****_Goodbye _**

After a few more minutes getting acquainted to each other, the Travis family was ready to depart. Tony, Jimmy and my father helped move the majority of the gifts that had been donated to Keiko and Beauty to the trunk of the Admiral's car, but they ended up promising to take the rest in the following morning.

Mrs. Travis was bubbling with happiness, as she looked enchanted at her grandchild. Keiko hovered on her side and both ahhhed and ohhhed whenever Beauty opened her eyes or moved her fingers.

They started to compare stories about Will and I was sure that Keiko would be a great addition to them as well as soothing balm for the horrible loss of their only son.

Abby was in her element, holding several teddy bears in various shapes and showing them to the Admiral, insisting that he should help name each and everyone so he could teach their names for his grandchild.

My dad kept watching me from his place, and I was just waiting for the moment he would come talk to me again.

But before that, they stood up, ready to leave. The Admiral thanked Gibbs, Vance the team and, when it was McGee's turn, gave him an emotional hug, the type that men share when they are trying to be tough but they are just woozy piles of feelings. McGee cringed at the slaps on his bruised back, but submitted himself gladly to the abuse.

Mrs. Travis kissed him on the cheek speaking nonstop, telling him that he should go see a doctor and this and that. In the end, she kissed his cheek again, bringing a soft laughter out of him.

I gave my goodbyes to them both, receiving a similar treatment, and when I turned, the scene I found before me brought tears to my eyes.

Keiko was hugging McGee's middle, her thin arms squeezing the life out of him. It would have been uncomfortable if McGee wasn't squeezing her back as firmly, his eyes closed as tears rolled down freely on his face. Keiko was crying softly, repeating continuously her thanks for having saved her life.

He sniffed and opened his eyes so they both took a step back and smiled at each other between their tears.

"You better look after Beauty very well or I'll be very disappointed with you."

"I won't disappoint you, McGee-San."

"Good." He nodded and glanced at me, a few steps back. "Very good."

Keiko noticed the direction of his gaze and smiled when she saw me. She walked up to me and stopped two feet apart, with a bright smile on her face, incongruent with the rivers of tears flowing.

She put her hands on prayer position and bowed the traditional way so I repeated the gesture, in respect to her culture and her legacy. When we finished our salutation, she giggled and hugged me, as tight as she hugged McGee, thanking me profusely in Japanese for helping her and her daughter.

I hugged her back and looked at McGee, seeing the same heartbroken feeling on his face as well.

We chatted a little in Japanese, promised to keep in touch and visit soon, and finally they were ready to go.  
We stood there, watching the family leave, but before Keiko left she turned to me with a peaceful smile and said something that would haunt me forever from that day on.

"You were right."

"About what?"

She started singing softly the same words I sang to her when the world seemed to come to an end around us and we thought our lives were forfeit.  
_  
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise  
and we will dance among the ruins  
We will see Him with our own eyes  
Out of this darkness... new life will shine  
and we'll know the joy is coming in the morning...  
in the morning...beauty will rise!  
_  
She finished the verses and smiled again, before being ushered by her father in law into the elevator and the doors softly hissed shut after her.

We were paralyzed for a moment, trying to figure out what to do next. Vance and Gibbs took their time looking at us, before Vance nodded to Gibbs and said in a get-back-to-work tone of voice.

"Good job, Agents McGee and Buchanan."

He started to walk to the stairs but when he reached the first landing, McGee's voice stopped him cold.

"Agent Riggins."

Vance froze on his steps, as McGee and I turned slowly to the Director, our faces silently questioning him.

"He was our liaison in Yokosuka office. Do you know if he..." I asked, but the unreadable face Vance showed to us was a herald of bad news.

Vance glanced briefly to Gibbs, who took a step forward making us look into his face.

"No..." I moaned feeling my throat closing up again.

"He was gravely injured in the first earthquake. He was taken to the hospital but he... didn't make it." Gibbs' voice was almost apologetic when he broke the news to us.

Ziva, Tony along with Jimmy, Ducky and Abby looked at us brokenheartedly seeing both of us barely holding back. I felt faint again so I tried to walk towards my desk, where I at least could collapse on my chair and die.

Dying.

Nihara was dead.

Riggins was dead.

The people at the fishing port were dead.

The old lady spying at us in Nihara's village was probably dead as well.

The people by the road.

Dead.

The people at the parking lot of the airport.

Dead.

I tried to walk past McGee but his arm snaked out and grabbed me, so I growled and hit him in his chest and howled as a wounded animal, as I was angry, angry at him, at myself at everyone because ten thousand people were dead.

Almost the same number of people was missing.

So many people were dead.

"Joy. Joy. Joy." He kept muttering my name as I cried as he brought me against his chest and hugged me, trying to comfort me but the memory of the bodies floating on the water was too fresh, so I shivered and felt my legs folding.

We both fell on our knees and cried, hugging each other, as our façade fell down and all fear, hurt and terror of the last week came crashing down on us full force, washing out all rationality and awareness of where we were and who was standing around us.


	42. 父 Father

_**Chapter 42 父 **__**Father**_

"I'm taking them home with me."

"They will need therapy."

"I'm aware of that. There's a very good psychologist at Wolf Point, just one hour out of Glasgow. She has treated Joy's PTSD before. I'll just call her and tell her that she's getting a new patient along with an old one."

"Aren't you too busy looking after Maggie as it is?"

"They're family, Jethro. Maggie will enjoy the visit. And the kids need to feel safe again. Nothing like home for it."

"What about Sarah?"

"She is welcome to come visit anytime."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

We were both terribly mortified for falling apart in the middle of the bullpen so we crawled to our desks and sat there, quietly, hoping for a hole to open up under us or for an airplane to fall on the building.

Anything would be better than the uncomfortable silence that befell upon us.

Tony and Ziva would throw occasional worried glances at us, making us both feel even tenser under their scrutiny.

Finally Gibbs came down with my Dad from Vance's office, both men were very serious. McGee tried to ignore them staring fixedly to his own computer screen as he did some kind of routine checking on it.

Routine was good.

Routine was safe.

Just do anything in the effort not to think about bloated bodies floating on water.

Both stopped before McGee's desk, probably because he was the one trying his hardest to ignore them, while I was watching them since they appeared in the mezzanine.

"Close down shop, son, we're leaving." Joseph said, watching how McGee's finger shook over his keyboard.

They stopped typing for a moment but the shaking continued.

"Why? We've just arrived." Tim muttered softly, still his gaze fixed on the computer screen.

"You two were granted mandatory leave with your reinstatement pending psychological evaluation." Gibbs said, looking at me observing my reaction to his news.

I just stared at him, frozen, feeling a band of fear and terror tightly squeezing my chest.

"Why? We're fine." McGee's voice shook as he finally looked up at Joseph.

"You're not fine, son." Joseph said gently but firmly.

"I am fine."

"If you are fine, why are you crying at your computer screen?" McGee touched his own cheeks and was surprised to find them wet again. He looked scared at Joseph, who kept speaking gently at him. "I've never imagined that running an antivirus in a hard drive was such an emotional task."

"Ah..."

"How long?" That was all I wanted to know. I stood up and went to my Dad's side.

"As long as it takes, kiddo."

- THE END? -

* * *

a/n: Hello my dear readers, thanks for being part of this amazing adventure! Another story is come and gone, leaving even more questions to be answered:

How long will they stay on leave?

How will the trauma affect both our dear agents?

What will be their actions in the next few weeks and how will that affect their future?

Oh... a lot will happen, and I really hope you stay tuned for the next installment.

You are all cordially invited to read the next episode in this amazing saga:

**_To have and to hold_**

Soon in your website - as soon as I get it back from my beta :-)

A few heartfelt thanks:

To kitten Tigyr - my fair lady, thank you for all your hard work proofreading my monsters.

To alix, watchdog, Danielle, Noraque, Doc Lee and Junee: Thanks for your faithfull reviews. You guys rock.

To all others who read and reviewed it. Thanks for enjoying it.

Finally, at last but not the least, to the people in Japan, both the victims, the survivors and those who had been non stop working trying to return order to that ravished land, searching for hope where there's none, giving comfort where all was lost, sharing hope when life was the only thing that remains.

May Beauty rise from the ashes of your dreams and hopes and give you strenght to keep fighting every single day, so you may know that the only thing that matters is to survive, no matter what happens. You will rise again, it will take time, but you will.

Yours faithfully,

WriterKos.


End file.
